Shenandoah National Park

On Saturday morning I was up earlier than I expected so after a dismal breakfast at the hotel (thankfully I had packed cereal bars), I got to the Shenandoah by 9am. And it was "get in free" day! (Normally there is a small fee to get into National Park without a pass and my pass ran out a few days before my trip.) I have been wanting to go up the Shenandoah since I got here. It was a beautiful as I had hoped.

Beautiful views.

Looking over the Moorman river. (I think)

I wanted to do a few of the hikes, but the small ones! The first one was to Blackrock summit. It was only a 1 mile round trip and because I was there early I had the place to myself for most of my walk.

The trail

The trees had started to turn so the colors were amazing!

Autumn leaves

Though I will admit when I saw this sign, I did think about turning back. Thankfully I didn't see any snakes, though for the first 10 mins after seeing this sign, a lot of tree roots looked very snake like! I think, thankfully, it was too cold for them at that time in the morning.

Snakes!

The trail up wasn't very scenic so I amused myself taking odd photos. :-)

Leaf!

But then the trail got to the summit after about 20 mins ambling. The trees just suddenly disappeared and the path becomes rocks. And the view was worth the climb.

View from the summit.

The path lead around the summit and meet up with the Appalachian Trail on the other side for the way down.

Path

On top of the world again

Fall has arrived

From the top of the summit.

The way down was along part of the Appalachian Trail. I had through walking the trail (Which is about 200 miles I think) would be cool. Then I read the Bill Bryson book on doing just that (I highly recommend it) and decided it was totally not for me. I am happy just walking a few little sections of it.
Once again on the way back to the car, I amused myself taking photos.

More leaves

Autumn trees and blue sky!

The second walk I did was further north and to Lewis Falls. According to the hiking map, it was a moderately difficult trail. They lied!!!! Going down was fine. Coming back up .... really not fun.

The Appalachain Trail start to Lewis falls

Thistle.

The start of the walk was along a open path in the sun. Very nice

Random door to nowhere in the side of the mountain.

Going in the right direction

Then the path become a little less obvious.

There is a path there. Honest. Somewhere

It took about 30mins to get there. And the view was worth it.

View near the falls.

You then continue round to view the falls, which was a bit disappointing. You couldn't see them very well. :-(

Lewis falls

I saw and ate my lunch viewing the falls before heading back up to the car. It took me quite a bit longer to get back. At the gift shop, they told me that was one of the more strenuous trails. The moral to this story is never trust hiking guides; they are probably written by someone a lot fitter than me!

After the hike, I had had enough walking, so headed for my hotel in Woodstock. The original plan was to go for a hot air balloon flight that night. I was so excited and the weather was amazing, perfect for the sunset flight. Then I phoned to check the flight was on and the owner told me his wife had had a baby a few hours ago and he was going to have to cancel. Congrats for him but of all the days....

So instead I went into Woodstock, found a steakhouse and had a really good meal. The steak was huge and perfectly cooked (finally an American who understands rare!). Back in my hotel room I watched the Little Mermaid and finished the wine from last night before getting an early night and one of the best nights sleep I have had in a while. Not the night I had planned but still pretty good.