There lots of places that we visited on this trip that I have made it onto my "Need to go back there someday" list. Most of them have earned that place by virtue of the fact that they have much more to see than we possibly could have covered in our whirlwind travels or because I'd love to introduce a family member or friend to them. Shenandoah National Park could have claimed a rightful spot on this list on it's own merits. The fact is, in addition to being a truly beautiful place and an incredible work of landscape architecture, it has landed on this list due to the fact that it came near the tail end of what has been an amazing but fairly tiring trip. By the time we reached Shenandoah, we were taking fewer pictures, seeking out fewer things to see, and generally doing everything with less enthusiasm.
This is what Shenandoah is all about; wide, serene vistas that look as if they could have been constructed of layers of blue gray paper or stitched together on a quilt. The spine of the park is the 105 mile Skyline drive along which there are many overlooks like the ones pictured here. This park was the centerpiece of the CCC initiative as it was close to the country's political center, it employed more men and boys than any other CCC project, and it's scope was unmatched elsewhere. What you might mistake for virgin forrest as you drive Skyline is actually a huge CCC garden. An unfathomable number of trees were transplanted along the length of the road to create the tunnel of forrest that you drive through today.
We arrived in the park late enough in the afternoon that we didn't want to do much more than set up camp and get dinner going. We got a nice spot in the Loft Mountain campground, which crams a lot of campers into a fairly small area, but each site is carved out of thick brush giving them a private and almost secluded feel. As a dinner of chicken and corn on the cob cooked over the fire, Zoe and Kinsey played games with the three girls from the next site over. After a decent dinner and a good night's sleep we felt more ready to do some exploring. At 35 mph it took quite a while for us to get from the campground to Big Meadows and the visitor's center. We watched a video about the CCC and the building of the park before getting lunch. It's worth noting that this was the only park we had encountered where the food offerings consisted almost exclusively of fried food; primarily fried chicken. After devouring a bucket of fried chicken, biscuits, french fries, and cole slaw, we were fueled up for a nice hike. There's nothing quite like a big greasy gut bomb before a hot and humid hike. While the Dark Hollow Falls hike is pretty verticle, it's only 1 1/2 miles round trip and has a nice little waterfall at the turn around point as a reward.
We might have stayed and seen more of Shenandoah, but after this little hike, everyone was feeling the pull of comfortable and familiar place that was only a few hours drive away. With the gravity of the grandparents' home tugging at us, we said our goodbyes to this beautiful and only partially appreciated place.
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