Shenandoah

This is another park that isn’t terribly far from where I grew up, but still, I didn’t make it here until I was 29. I visited for the first time in 2019 with my mom, exploring a number of the trails that lead to lovely mountain views, waterfalls, and overlooks to watch the sunset. It’s a gorgeous park that showcases the Appalachians, with layers of trees, rock, forest, and sky. The park roads offer a lot of pretty views, especially Skyline Drive which you can take in or out of the park, depending on which direction you are coming from. All of the hikes we did on my first visit were pretty in different ways. When I came back for a second visit in December 2020, the leaves on the trees were all gone, and we hiked the challenging Old Rag Mountain Loop. It was tough to get to the top, and most of the view below was shrouded in fog, but it was still super neat to be on the boulder-filled top of the mountain, knowing how high we were above the surrounding range. This is a park that I am sure I will visit again one day. I’d especially like to check it out in fall when the leaves are changing!