This is a retrospective blog of my seven-week exploration of Virginia along with a journey through the Shenandoah National Park and on down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee, North Carolina. 'Retrospective' means simply that it wasn't written during the trip, but is being written in hindsight a little over a year later. Baaswell Sheep accompanied me and is writing the blog in the way he's done my later blogs, since he's so good with the color commentary. Unfortunately, since I didn't plan for this blog back them, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little bigger than I do in my later blogs.
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Can you believe it? We've been through four weeks now with three left to go. This is week five, and we're about to transition to a place of natural beauty and wonder, though first we're going back into the past one more time to visit a historic presidential home.
A number of our early presidents came from Virginia, one of which was James Madison, our fourth president. He made his home in Orange, Virginia, not too far from his good friend, colleague, and fellow president, Thomas Jefferson, who resided in Monticello south of Charlottesville. While Monticello has been open to the public for many decades, Montpelier remained in private hands until 1984, and then it was put into a historic trust, restored, and finally opened to the public less than two decades ago in 2008. So, it's the kind of place that feels old (because it is), yet not that many people have had an opportunity to tour the house and grounds, which are pretty large. The last owner was really big into horse racing, so there are large practice race tracks on the grounds now that didn't exist in Madison's days, but they don't really detract from the scenic beauty. The tour takes you all through the main house, which was expanded several times even before Madison passed away, giving you a glimpse into his daily life there. Strange but intriguing are the printed cardboard cutouts put around the dining room table to give you a sense of the kinds of people who would come to visit. We've never seen a historic site do something like that, and yet it didn't feel that terribly out-of-place either. As with many sites of this nature, the outbuildings that remain are utilized to educate about the realities of slavery, reminding one of the rather harsh conditions those servants lived in compared to the people who owned them who got to live in the splendor of the main house.
One of our most favorite places to visit, Shenandoah is a linear park running along the ridges of the Shenandoah mountains, part of the Blue Ridge mountain system. The park is accessed via Skyline Drive, which runs from I-64 at Waynesboro, where the Blue Ridge Parkway ends, up to Front Royale near I-66. Along these 110 miles of natural wonder are the Skyland Resort, which dates back to years before the park itself was created, and Big Meadow Lodge. While we've stayed at Skyland on both of our previous visits, we opted for Big Meadow this time and were not disappointed. Skyland has a lot of charm, and we're planning to go up there for a day to reminisce about our past visits, but Big Meadows does have a few more amenities at arm's length. Best of all, Shenandoah is high enough that the temperature at 6 PM was only in the low eighties, a very enjoyable break form the high nineties temperatures down below.
Just past the entry point we used at Swift Run Gap, South River Falls is one of nine named falls within the Shenandoah park, and one that we had not visited before. The hike starts at a picnic area, which is really convenient since there are restrooms there – well, composting toilets, but that's better than nothing, right? The day was beautiful, and in spite of the high nineties temperatures in the "lowlands" lately, up here in the mountain peaks it was a nice, comfortable mid-eighties. The 2.6 mile hike (round trip) took us two hours and really got us in the mood for the rest of our Shenandoah visit. The falls were hard to photograph with the full summer foliage on the trees, but you can kind of see them in the next to last picture below.
After our waterfall hike, we headed up to Big Meadows, got checked in, and enjoyed a late dinner on the tavern patio watching the sunset. After the extreme temperatures down below, it was pretty strange have to get lightweight jackets out after dark, but up her the temperature was getting down into the low sixties. We're tired but happy and looking forward to further mountain adventures tomorrow.
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
A number of our early presidents came from Virginia, one of which was James Madison, our fourth president. He made his home in Orange, Virginia, not too far from his good friend, colleague, and fellow president, Thomas Jefferson, who resided in Monticello south of Charlottesville. While Monticello has been open to the public for many decades, Montpelier remained in private hands until 1984, and then it was put into a historic trust, restored, and finally opened to the public less than two decades ago in 2008. So, it's the kind of place that feels old (because it is), yet not that many people have had an opportunity to tour the house and grounds, which are pretty large. The last owner was really big into horse racing, so there are large practice race tracks on the grounds now that didn't exist in Madison's days, but they don't really detract from the scenic beauty. The tour takes you all through the main house, which was expanded several times even before Madison passed away, giving you a glimpse into his daily life there. Strange but intriguing are the printed cardboard cutouts put around the dining room table to give you a sense of the kinds of people who would come to visit. We've never seen a historic site do something like that, and yet it didn't feel that terribly out-of-place either. As with many sites of this nature, the outbuildings that remain are utilized to educate about the realities of slavery, reminding one of the rather harsh conditions those servants lived in compared to the people who owned them who got to live in the splendor of the main house.
