Today, May 14th, we entered Shenandoah National Park. Some facts about SNP:
- On December 27, 1935 the park was officially established
- Skyline Drive runs 105 miles north to south through Shenandoah National Park
- Shenandoah National Park has over 500 miles of trail
- 101 mile trail make up part of the Appalachian Trail
- Shenandoah covers a total area of 197,411 acres or 308 square miles
https://www.nps.gov/shen/index.htm
These first couple of days of hiking in the NP has been wet, foggy and cool,
This wet weather has really obstructed the amazing views. But if you take a moments, you can observe many interesting things.
These leaves didn’t photograph quite as well as I had hoped. The way the light filtered through the fog, and reflected on the rain drops, it looked like beads of silver on the leaves.
This flower is challenging when trying to identify. I haven’t seen it anywhere else on the trail, but that could be because it hadn’t bloomed yet. Photographed here in Shenandoah NP. It’s really fragrant. It hangs like Wisteria. Maybe that’s what it is, White Wisteria.
BTW, I came across this great website for identifying flowers along the southern AT. If you drill up on this link, its photo topics go way beyond the AT.
https://pbase.com/waterfallrich/southern_appalachian_wildflowers&page=all
Another milestone was achieved today. If you look where Warrior Princesses front paws are placed, you can see a new mile marker. Also, I can’t get over how happy she looks here.
🥇🥈🥉Mile 900🥉🥈🥇
These two ladies were wonderful to run into. This is the second time CornDog and I have crossed thier paths. They are from Wyoming(Sarah), and New Hampshire(Ray). We just had the best conversation, discussing our experiences on the trail, and I was able to share a little trail magic with them. Hiking is a wonderful pastime, but it can get a little lonely. It’s nice when you encounter hikers who not only have interesting stories, but who are also interested in your story.
This is Tanners Ridge Cemetery, within the national park. I thought it noteworthy to find a modern cemetery in the park. CornDog wanted a photo here.
I found this YouTube video about this cemetary.
Shenandoah National Park is a haven for dear, apparently. They are everywhere, and many show little to no concern with hikers. The benefit of living your life in a nation park, you have never been hunted. One of the best comments I’ve read on the FarOut App referred to deer coming into camp at night as “The Deer Mafia”.
About halfway through the park, you come to the Big Meadows area. This area probably has the densest park administration presence within Shenandoah, having a general store, a large campground (where I camped, and would absolutely camp again 👍), rental cabins, and a great visitors center.
The visitors center, beyond having a small gift shop and CLEAN BATHROOMS, has a “walk through time” self guided park history tour. It’s fairly comprehensive, taking time to cover not only the conception of the park, but discussing topics such as racial exclusion in the park, and how the fairly new concept of imminent domain impacted land owners prior to the park being established.
I loved coming across this display, with a photo and quote from John Muir. John Muir has a long trail (200 plus miles) named after him, located along the Pacific Crest Trail. We hiked almost the entire section during our PCT adventure in 2022. It’s an amazing hike, one of the highlights of the PCT. This link provides all sorts of details.
https://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/john-muir-trail
This fast moving fox was photographed at Big Meadows.
Ending this section with a couple of photos from the mist. I love the deer in the fog photo. WaterBoy has a pretty good photographic eye.
As we hike north we keep coming across plants that earlier along the trail had bloomed. Blooming is delayed as we move north. This is something we know happens, but kind of cool to see everyday. Pictured here is budding Pink Mountain Laurel.