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Day 26: Shenandoah National Park

Drove from the urban, crowded, active metro of Washington DC to the rural, lush forests and mountains of Virginia and West Virginia today. The goal was to visit both Shenandoah and New River Gorge National Parks today, but that turned out to be too ambitious. Will have to go to New River Gorge tomorrow after staying the night at an AirBnb in Fayetteville, West Virginia.

After a wonderful, but too short a time with my nephew in DC, hit the road in the morning. It was slow going through the traffic on Constitution Ave. It gave me a chance to catch a glimpse of the White House, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

 

 

 

After getting out of DC into Virginia, I made a quick stop at a supercharger and then was on my way to Shenandoah National Park.  Driving in the countryside in the east coast is beautiful with lush green rolling hills covered with dense forests. Quite a contrast to the west coast. This was also true for the drive today.


I reached around 1pm at the trailhead for my first hike in Shenandoah National Park to Stony Man Mountain. It was a short hike, but through amazing, dense ferns.  The views of the series of mountain ranges from the summit were also cool.



The second short hike in Shenandoah was the Dark Hollow Falls trail.Again, the surrounding forest during the hike down to the falls was awesome. The falls were nice, but nothing spectacular. These two short hikes in Shenandoah was all the time I had today. There is a lot more to see and do in the park and something to look forward in a future visit, 

After leaving Shenandoah, stopped for an early dinner at an Applebee restaurant next to a Tesla supercharger stop. The soup and salad were reasonably good, but what fascinated me was the friendly, happy, smiling waitress. Can't recall when someone last called me "honey" and "dear" so many times within 20 minutes.  

I was hoping to reach New River Gorge before sunset, but it was already pitch dark by the the time I drove past it. So, went directly to my AirBnb, a house in the remote countryside surrounded by forests all around.

The raw numbers for the day:

  • 338 miles driving, 9200 steps walking
  • 3 Tesla supercharger stops
  • 2 states - Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia

Next:  Day 27:  Mammoth Cave National Park (Sept 30, 2022)

Comments

  1. ManeeshaOctober 4, 2022 at 7:23 PM

    "Can't recall when someone last called me "honey" and "dear" so many times within 20 minutes" ---> माँ दा लाडला बिगड़ गया..

    ReplyDelete
  2. VisheshOctober 4, 2022 at 7:26 PM

    "Driving in the countryside in the east coast is beautiful with lush green rolling hills covered with dense forests." This is so true! One of the big perks of living out east for sure.

    ReplyDelete

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