Shenandoah

Our return home takes us first south and then west.  We begin our journey driving through the towns and farmlands of Pennsylvania and Maryland on our way for a return visit to Shenandoah National Park.  It never ceases to amuse us that one can drive through so many states in an hour in the East, not possible in the West.  We left PA, went through MD, nicked VA (about a mile), on to WV and then back to VA where we are settled in the national park (so very glad they and all fed employees are back to work).  You may recall that we stayed in a wonderful state park here on Memorial Day Weekend with Cheryl, Dave and Bennett.  We have traded in the comforts of power and water to bask in the beauty of the trees that surround our campsite within the park.

After leaving the RV in its temporary home, we took a sunset ride along Skyline Drive to enjoy the view and were treated to a bear and her cub crossing the road. 

 Sadly, they refused to pose for a good picture.

The next morning we joined Ranger Woody (his real name) for a 2-mile hike up to Stony Man. Woody told of the development of the national parks of the East.  Easterners saw people traveling to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon and wanted to share the success of those parks  in the West. A combination of wealth from men like John D. Rockefeller II and the law of eminent domain, took parks like Acadia, Shenandoah and the Great Smokey Mountains out of private ownership and into the NPS.  Eminent domain was the prime means for Shenandoah.  Farmland where owners made $100 per chestnut tree they cut down fell under eminent domain because of propaganda that said these farmers were barely surviving and because a blight was destroying the chestnuts.  Some left willingly selling to the government, for others resentment continues to this day.

For visitors, this is a beautiful area rich in 100-150 year old trees, green stone lava flows left by ancient glaciers, and home to wild life.  The Shenandoahs are assumed the oldest mountains in the US (maybe the world.  See our New River blog for the nearby ancient river of the area).  Our hike took us onto the Appalachian Trail denoted by the white paint slash on the trees (does that earn us an AT designation?  Anna Lee is reading Wild for her book club and getting a hint of the effort to hike a transcontinental trail). 

Woody pointed out the power of nature to destroy and survive.  While one tree cleaved a boulder,

the other continued to thrive in spite of another tree falling upon it.

Anna Lee reacts to the climate on top of the mountain.

After lunch at Skyland, we hiked down and down and down to Dark Hollow Falls.  The steep trail (for us) was worth the photos, wasn’t it?

Woody told us about a special open house of Massahutten Lodge, home to the founder of Skyland.  Back in the late 1800s, George Pollock went to Shenandoah to check on his father’s copper mine.  He reported that the mine wasn’t doing well, but the area was of such beauty that they family should build a resort for wealthy Easterners to vacation.  Skyland is that resort and the lodge was home to George and, more so, his wife Addie.  Though their marriage was one of separate living with her claiming he married her for her money, both shared a commitment to Shenandoah.  Addie built her own house and hosted women writers, artists, and suffragettes in her four-room cottage.  No interior photos allowed.

Skyland still is a popular resort.  We returned in the evening for a show by the Shenandoah Valley Cloggers.  These women, aged 28-73, performed dances similar to Irish and Scottish jigs with country music.  They were delightful and much in the vein of George Pollock who enjoyed entertaining his guests with a variety of shows.

Because of its location near major population centers, Shenandoah claims to be the most visited national park in the system and we look forward to a return visit.