Sunday: Back to Shenandoah National park for another day trip. This time I explored the middle section of skyline drive. The lower section will have to wait for another trip- its a little too far for a day trip from where Im staying and is also the least visited portion of the park (many people day trip from DC lol). This time instead of doing one of the few summit/mountain style hikes I picked a hike to a waterfall which was of course... canyon style. Not my favorite! But the hike was nice and the sun was out. Hiking back out was warm and my difficulty with canyon style is the psychological factor of omg I have to hike out even when I know I can. Mountain style hiking if its ever too much you just stop and the easy part is getting back down. Its just a weird mental exercise really... The waterfall was really just a long rapid- a series of mini waterfalls more than an actual big waterfall. Was still great scenery and copper was a super happy muddy boy. Driving along the skyline drive we stopped at multiple scenic outlooks at did 2 other really short hikes
The visitor center on the middle section also had an amazing exhibit about the history of the park. One thing about the distribution of the national parks is they are all mostly on the Western half of the US. This is mostly because by the time national parks were being created most of the land on the East was already inhabited and privately owned. Shenandoah and Smoky mountain are really the only larger parks land wise east of the Mississippi. (We already know the Florida parks are all water lol!). Essentially in the 1920s people were envious of the parks of the west and wanted to create and preserve some land driving distance from DC to be a national park. So they set out and asked for federal funds and bought the land back and created shenandoah as a national park. It was one of the first places to have CCC camps in the 1930s and skyline drive and all the pullouts and trails were created during that time. Its almost a backwards way of creating a park because previously an estimated 2000 people did live on the land that makes up present day
Shenandoah. So people lived here, then the Federal government bought the land back and started to preserve it just for the sake of having a large chunk of uninhabited land.
Monday: The place Im staying has a gorgeous backyard- Im staying in a converted basement unit of a large single family house. Its a walkout basement so I have a sliding door to a patio in the yard which has a really awesome porch swing. Copper has a best friend living upstairs with the hosts (seriously these 2 dogs have the same crazy insane 3 year old boy energy level). So evenings on the patio are just divine watching the dogs chase eachother and my hosts are super friendly and we chat some too 😊
Wednesday: A nice after work hike in a local park trail system. Lots of trails woven together at short distances. Never knew exactly where I was or where I meant to go but it was still a nice route. Also found some very random abandoned objects like the truck in the picture.
a friend from Arizona who has moved to VA. Was nice to catch up and see a familiar face in person 😊 They had something called a Chorizo burger which was delicious. Basically instead of ground beef the patty was made of chorizo and it is a great adaptation of a burger! yum 😊
Saturday: Traveling full time is in some ways exhausting. Theres constant adaptation and never a full feeling of being settled. Every airbnb has some weird way of doing dishes, or a weird work setup, awkward way to take the dog out etc. You never get things to your liking. I also constantly have a feeling of making the most of the time in every location and trying to see everything because when will I be back? Who knows! Last weekend with a full day in DC on Saturday and full day in Shenandoah National Park Sunday left me just exhausted.
