Shenandoah River SP, VA

Our expectation of this park and the campground was very different from what the reality was.  We envisioned, small wooded sites and narrow roads but it couldn’t have been further of the reality.  The RV campground is small, but the sites are spacious, private with gravel driveway.  Our site had a little trail that connected with the main trail, close to river.  After we landed, we started exploring the park taking the river trail.  After a mile or so, it started climbing up to the visitors center rather steeply.  We continued to Culler’s Overlook, which has amazing views of Shenandoah River valley and the mountains beyond.  Certainly not we expected.

Blair and Casey came to visit and took me on hiking trip to the Shenandoah National Park.  We hiked Stony Man Mountain, part of the trail was the AT.  The view from the top was surreal, there were clouds covering the ridge, but we were above it with blue, clear skies.  It felt like we were in a plane, with the ridge visible once in a while, as the clouds moved.  We then hiked Dark Hollow Falls, short but steep trail.  Since it’s late in the season the water levels were low, I hiked portion of this trail in the spring, and the falls were full. We had wonderful lunch at Big Meadows Wayside, it was fried chicken and blackberry ice cream for dessert.

We visited Luray Caverns as well, it’s such an iconic place in this area. I love the Stalacpipe Organ, which is the worlds only such instrument. The caverns are the largest in Eastern US and decorated with many stalactites, stalagmites, flows and other formations. As we returned to the campground, we stopped at Culler’s Overlook, it’s such a beautiful view of the river.  Blair and Casey then continued on their road trip (Charlottesville and Washington DC).

This is when the story changes.  I mentioned that we had a problem with our slide out at Harpers Ferry, so after some discussion, Tom and I decided to look into upgrading our camper.  We could simply did not trust any dealer to fix the issue and would be reluctant to go west with it.  After two long drives, we decided to go with new Brinkley model and instead of camping at Westmoreland, we booked a stay at Americamp RV, just few miles from the dealer.

For the rest of our stay, we walked the river trail every evening, I loved the sunsets over the large meadow, this is a beautiful park.