Shenandoah National Park, Day Two: Dark Hollow Falls, Rose River Falls, and Lewis Falls

This is Day Two of a travel series to Shenandoah National Park.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE.

On our second day at Shenandoah National Park, "Skyline Drive" opened.  We were so excited we could officially drive into the park.  We felt we had to make up for loss time, so we set an ambitious goal of hiking three waterfall trails in one day:  Dark Hollow Falls, Rose River Falls, and Lewis Falls.

Shenandoah National Park is a very unique park as the entire park sits on top of a mountain range.  There is a road on top of the mountain called "Skyline Drive".  You can see it marked in red on the map below.  "Skyline Drive" is 105 miles long and has more than 75 miles of overlooks with scenic views.  There are more than 500 miles of hiking trails that lead to stunning views of waterfalls, mountain vistas, and lush forests.  All the trails are accessed from "Skyline Drive".

There are so many trails that it's hard to choose which ones to hike, that is why we allowed four full days in the park.  We've never spent this much time in one park before.  We decided to only do waterfall hikes (with the exception of Hawk's Bill) because we thought we got enough scenic views by stopping at most of the overlooks.

We were always in the park early in the morning and we were able to see a lot of wildlife because of it.  Below is an owl who we spotted as we were driving into the park.  We saw most of the animals that were listed as "Wildlife in the Park" including a lot of interesting birds and snakes.  The only animal we didn't see was the black bear...which is probably a good thing. 😀

Dark Hollow Falls Trail

Dark Hollow Falls is one of the most popular waterfall hikes in the park.  When I was googling information on what hikes to take, everyone recommended Dark Hollow Falls.  It's a 1.4 mile circuit hike  with an elevation gain of 440 feet and is rated as moderate.  The trail is short, but the return climb is steep and rocky.  I should mention that the one drawback of a park being on top of a mountain range is that most of the trails involve climbing of some sort...especially waterfalls trails.  All the waterfall trails had to go DOWN to get to the falls, so every trail we hiked (with the exception of one) was difficult climbing back up.

Now add to the steep nature of this trail snow and ice.  In the picture above you can see how the ground was solid ice.  I had my hiking poles with me, so I used them to keep me from slipping.  I never would have been able to hike this trail without them.  I saw so many people struggling hiking down to the waterfall, but the hike back up was much more manageable.

Dark Hollow Falls is a gorgeous trail, even if there were no waterfall at the end.  The entire trail runs alongside a mountain stream, through a beautiful forest, with lots of interesting rock formations.

Dark Hollow Falls

Seeing the waterfall at the end was a real treat.  And I think the fresh snowfall on the rocks made it even more pretty.  The falls are 70 feet high.  If you look closely in the picture above, you can see me sitting at the base of the falls wearing all black.  But if you look up, right in the middle of the falls, you will see my adventurous son standing.  He was so camouflaged by his clothing, even I didn't see up there when I got to the bottom of the falls.

Here is a short video of Dark Hollow Falls

This trail was so beautiful in the snow with bare trees, I can't even imagine what it would be like in the summer or fall.  Everyone said the park is super crowded during the summer months.  I found this park one of the least crowded of any I've ever been too.  I know it's not the tourist season, but we always travel off-season, and the parks are always super crowded.  I think this park is just so large, and it has so many hiking trail possibilities, that people are just more spread out.  We never once had trouble finding parking for any trail.  And most of the time, we had the trail completely to ourselves.  

The deer are so plentiful in this park.  I've never seen so many deer in a park before.  They are everywhere, and are very tame.  You can get very close to them, they don't run away easily.  And my husband said "They are very well trained, because they never got scared and ran across the road when they saw a car."  😂.  They always stay to the side of the road.

We just loved walking alongside this beautiful stream all the way to the falls.

Rose River Falls

Rose River Falls is a moderate 4 mile circuit hike with an elevation gain of 910 feet.  I must admit this was one of my least favorite hikes in the park.  It's two miles to the falls, most of which you are walking through a forest (you do walk past a stream as you get closer to the falls), so there isn't much scenery....and it's all downhill to the falls, so guess what the return trip will be?  You guessed it!  Two miles, all uphill.  It's not easy going uphill for two straight miles, so I was hurting at the end.

I also didn't think the falls were worth the two mile hike to see.  It's only 67 feet high, and the falls are split into two on each side of the rocks.  In the summer, I'm sure a lot of people use the base of the falls as a swimming hole.  

A video of Rose River Falls

Well, by now we had already hiked 5.4 miles so after a lunch break we got back in the car and enjoyed more scenic overlooks on the way to our final hike of the day:  Lewis Falls

Lewis Falls

Lewis Falls is the fourth tallest falls in the park at 81 feet.  I really don't recommend taking this hike at all, as there are so many better waterfall hikes in the park (coming in future travel posts).  It starts nicely through a pretty forest and alongside a stream (saw a deer drinking water from the stream), but then it gets very rocky and is a steep climb down (and yes, you have to go back up).  It was our last hike of the day, and we were already extremely fatigued, so I think that might have added into our dislike of the trail.  But when I read other reviews of the trail, most other hikers had similar feelings.  It was also very slippery with both snow and ice, so thank goodness I had poles.  

This trail is a 3.3 mile circuit hike and is rated as moderate with an elevation gain of 990 feet.

I think our biggest issue with the falls is you go through so much work to get to it and you can barely see it.  You can't get to the bottom of the falls, but only to an observation deck off the side.  In the summer when the foliage is on the trees, you probably can't see much of it at all.  I did read on another blog however, that you can see more of the falls if you take a spur trail to the right of the overlook.  We didn't know about the spur trail at the time, but that's probably ok because at that point we were exhausted and ready to call it a day.  All in all, by the end of Day Two we hiked 8.7 miles.  And on Day One we hiked 10 miles.  Our bodies were aching!

Some Scenic Overlooks

We spent the remainder of Day Two driving out of the park en route to our resort, and of course we stopped frequently enjoying all the overlooks along the way.  The picture above shows more tame deer, and a typical overlook.  Not all the overlooks are as large as this one, some are just one side area for a few cars to fit.  But as you can see, there one was only one car enjoying the view when we arrived.  We never had trouble waiting for a spot to pull over at an overlook.

The beauty of this park, is that anyone can enjoy it because of  the gorgeous scenic drive and all the beautiful overlooks.  Heck, you can spend all day in the car and never get out if you want.   We did not take advantage of them, but they have several restaurants and waysides in the park where you can enjoy a meal and look out the window or sit on the patio and enjoy the view too.

Next week, I will be back with another water fall hike plus a hike to Shenandoah's highest peak.  The trip only got better after Day Two, for the rest of our hikes were INCREDIBLE!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Easter Weekend

If you've noticed my absence from Blogland, it's because I took a week off to celebrate Easter weekend with my family, then we headed to Virginia for four days of hiking in Shenandoah National Park.  I already did my first travel post on Shenandoah HERE, and I decided to share my Easter weekend in a separate lifestyle post today.

It's super hard to get all the grandkids to cooperate at the same time for family photos, but I did manage to get one snapped of me with Alethea and Atticus wearing our Easter outfits.  As usual, I was planning on wearing a pretty Easter dress Easter Sunday, but it was only 38 degrees when we left for church (55 degree high for the day) so I chose white pants and this embroidered yellow top instead .  Apparently though I ended up one of the only women who dressed appropriately for the weather, because it seemed everyone I saw had bare legs and sandals on.  BRRR.

Easter Sunday Outfits

Eating Zucchini Bread with Grandpa Todd

Every family has traditions, one of our's that developed quite naturally and was never planned is "Eating zucchini Bread with Grandpa Todd".  It all started because like most gardeners I have more zucchini than I can consume.  So all summer long, I would bake zucchini bread.  I would make two loaves and eat one loaf right away and freeze the other loaf.  By the end of the summer you can just imagine how many loaves of zucchini bread are in the freezer.  Well, one way to get rid of it, is to always take a loaf with me when I visit the kids/grandkids.  This past February during my winter visit, I brought a loaf of zucchini bread.  And as we were eating it Atticus said "We ate zucchini bread with Grandpa Todd too!".  Grandpa Todd hadn't been to their house since last Easter.  I couldn't believe a two year old could remember something that happened a year earlier!  It must have really meant something to him to remember that, so I established a new tradition of "Eating zucchini bread with Grandpa Todd" every time we're together.

Another funny story about the zucchini bread was Alethea's statement "I don't like zucchini, but I LOVE zucchini bread!"  Hmm, I wonder if it has anything to do with the sugar?

Playing On The Playground

After spending eight hours in the car to get to Indiana, we were anxious to stretch our legs, so we walked to a new local park.  This park is not a traditional park.  There are no slides or traditional swings, everything is meant to be climbed on.  We're not quite sure how we feel about it as it's not really safe for younger kids and seems more appropriate for young teens.  

Well of course, all the adults had to get on the equipment and play too.  While I was climbing the rope I remembered my last vacation and how I had injured myself on the first day climbing a ladder.  That injury haunted me the rest of my vacation, so I didn't want that to happen again and I quickly got off the ropes.  I no sooner had that thought when my hubby rolled over on the top of the rope and one of the metal hinges that holds the ropes together struck him hard in the hip tearing his pants and giving him one of the biggest bruises I had ever seen.  I could not believe it!  I was really worried about him on our vacation because the bruise kept getting bigger and bigger and he was complaining of hip pain.  But I googled it, and determined the bruising wasn't in a worrisome part of the body so we tried to put it out of mind.  Eventually it did go away and all is well, but wow! What irony!  Maybe us old people need to just stay off the playground equipment. 😁

Atticus just loves and adores his Grandpa Todd.  It's so heart warming seeing the special connection these two have.

Grandkids Opening Up Their Easter Baskets

We decided to let the kiddos open their Easter baskets on Saturday evening after dinner since we already had a full day's of activities planned for Sunday.  If you want to know more details about everything I put in their Easter baskets, be sure to check out THIS POST.

Atticus was so excited when he saw that his Easter basket contained a sword!  

Of course he immediately started to re-enact the David and Goliath story.  

I think Alethea's favorite item was her ballerina outfit.  She wanted to wear it so bad that instead of saving it for a warmer day, she wore it to bed as pajamas.

And the Dove dark chocolate bunny was their favorite thing to eat!  Who can blame them?

                            Easter Morning

Easter Morning Elisha and I were waiting for everyone else to finish getting dressed.  He was in such a good mood I had Grandpa Todd snap a picture.  I love Elisha's infectious smile.

Ashley and Jason's church served an AMAZING Easter breakfast!  Free of charge too...no donations asked.  I was so impressed and thought:  "Now this is a good idea, why don't more churches do this?".  The men of the church made and served the breakfast...another great idea!  The women can get all the kids dressed and looking pretty in their Easter best while the guys cook.  It's was just wonderful because most people have family over for the weekend or their trying to get their Easter hams in the oven, and it just makes it so much easier on everyone to have breakfast provided on church.  

I love how every table had a different pastel colored table cloth and there was a lovely vase of spring flowers too!

The food selection was incredible...something for everyone:  made to order omelets, pancakes, biscuits & gravy, sausage, ham, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, muffins, donuts, fruit, juice and coffee!  Yum!

Elisha is still not crawling, but he is definitely lifting up his head & chest well and rolling around.

He is the cutest baby ever, and he may be our first red head.  I thought, if his hair stays red, we will have a blond, a brunette, and now a red head!  How fun!

The Easter Egg Hunt

 Although the weather was in the fifties in the afternoon, there was still a cool wind so we decided to have an indoor Easter egg hunt.  The kids seemed to really enjoy it and we think it was actually harder for them to find the eggs inside the house than outside.  You can see the Easter egg hunt in the video below.

The Drive To Virginia

Monday morning we woke up and were surprised to see snow!  We couldn't believe it! How could it be snowing when it was 55 the day before?  But it was snowing and we had a nine hour drive to Virginia.  😢. We thought, well maybe when we drive further east we will get out of it.  Nope.  Although we did just hit rain in some areas, it was a constant mixture of either snow, rain, or slush.  What was suppose to be a nine hour drive ended up being eleven because of the weather conditions.  Who would ever think there would be snow in the southeast at the end of April?

By the time we hit Maryland, we hit ice!  It was no longer on the road (thankfully we missed when that storm started) but it was still on all the trees, electrical wires, etc.  In the photo below, that is ice on all the branches, not frost.

We were so happy and relieved when we arrived at our hotel safely.  After checking in, we went to a local diner to enjoy some pizza!  All was well with the world again...until the next day when we found out the park was closed.  😂. I won't say much yet as you will find out more in all the travel posts to come, but it was one of those vacations where so much went wrong.  It got to the point, where all we could do was laugh.  There were a couple of times I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.  But in the end, we determined it really was a nice vacation, in spite of everything that went wrong.  And maybe, just maybe, we were making too big of a deal out of other things that went wrong because the vacation had started so badly.

I hope you enjoyed reading this lifestyle post.  I don't do them all that often, but I know some readers have expressed more lifestyle posts so I'm going to try to write more when I can.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Shenandoah National Park, Day One: Dickey Ridge Trail and the Shenandoah Valley Overlook

If you noticed I've been away from my blog for awhile, it's because I have.  I have been on vacation.  We went to spend Easter weekend with the kids and grandkids, and from there we drove to Shenandoah National Park.  

Now, if you're like everyone else, the first thing you will say is "Where is Shenandoah National Park?"  Every time I told someone where I was going on vacation, they would ask that question.  I don't think I've met a single person who knew where it was or even heard of it.  And to be perfect honest, I never heard of it before either.  I was reading a blog from another reader who lives in New Jersey, and that is where I first saw it.  I then looked it up on the map and saw it was only about nine hours from my daughter's house, which is an easy days drive, so I thought it would be a good trip when we were in her neck of the woods.

Shenandoah is in the beautiful state of Virginia about 75 miles from that den of inequity people like to refer to as Washington DC.  I must admit every time my husband and I looked at a map and saw how close the park was to DC we got shivers up our spine.  But we braved it out, and to our surprise Virginia was filled with people who were freedom loving Americans who thought and lived just like us...so we LOVED it!

We left for the park on a Monday with the plan of hiking a full four days in the park until we returned home.  But to our surprise, Virginia had a freak winter storm and the park was closed for two days.  I've never experienced a park that closed due to weather before, and here is the reason why:  the park is actually high top of a mountain.  There is one road that goes for 105 miles on top of this mountain range, so if there is bad weather, they close the park.

We were so disappointed they wouldn't let us drive into the park, but we saw there was a trail that started just outside the park called "Dickey Ridge Trail" so we decided to make the best of it and hike that while we waited for the park to reopen.

It was a beautiful wooded trail that went through a forest and ran along a stream.  We were in lower elevations at this point, so there wasn't much snow and ice YET.  The trail is actually quite complicated for there are several options to hike it ranging from a five mile gentle loop to an eighteen mile ridge hike.  Initially we planned on taking the loop, but somehow made it five miles up to the Dicky Ridge Visitor Center (I'm sure the snow on the ground covered the trail and that's how we missed the loop).

Of all the trails we hiked while in Shenandoah National Park, this was the only trail where we saw Blue Bells.  I couldn't believe they were still blooming through the snow and ice.  After this picture was taken, I saw an even larger field of Blue Bells higher up the mountain.

This bridge was completely covered in snow and ice when we started our hike, but on the return trip it was already all gone.  I know it looks freezing in the photos, but it was actually a beautiful, sunny day.  I think that was why so many people were surprised that Skyline Drive (the name of the 105 mile road through the park) was still closed.

We really loved this trail.  After walking along the creek for awhile it gains in elevation and you can start seeing the mountains!

We hiked all the way up to the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center which was five miles from the start of the hike.  Now up here at 3, 530 feet it was cold, with a sharp, bone-chilling strong wind.  But oh my goodness the view!  It was incredible and so worth the five mile climb to get here.

We decided to walk the Skyline Drive partially back so we didn't have to hike in the slushy snow.  As soon as it dropped elevation a bit, it got warmer, and we were treated to even more spectacular views.  This view is called the "Shenandoah Valley Overlook".

It was amazing to me to be "up in winter wonderland" and look down at the lush green valley below where it was in the upper fifties.

We always love to head east in spring to see these purple flowering trees.  They are everywhere out east and down south.  We don't have them in Wisconsin, but I sure wish we did.  

By the time we made it back to our car, we had hiked ten miles and we really felt it!  I couldn't believe we hiked ten miles in a single day!  We didn't get to hike the trail we planned on hiking on day one (Piney Branch Trail Loop) but we made the best of it and had fun on another trail instead.  And I never would have seen Virginia Blue Bells if I didn't hike this trail.  Vacations don't always go as planned, and you quite often have to just alter things and make the best of it.

The park did reopen the next day, and we were back on schedule!  I'll share more hiking adventures at Shenandoah National Park next week!  

Have a Great Day! Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!