It’s like the driver parked it here just for me. How fun would it be to go exploring in a Jeep?
The driver was a man with an enormous camera and monopod who was capturing the golden light of sunset over the mountains from a perch in Shenandoah National Park.
I was grateful for the nice light and the chance encounter with camera in hand but perhaps a little jealous of his Jeep and big camera!
The best kind of road trip is one where the journey is the destination. Often times you locate things along the way that you didn’t even know existed.
Last weekend’s road trip destination was the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia but I built in time going to and from that would allow for some tangents.
The first was on the way down when a highway sign pointed me to a secondary road to go chasing a covered bridge.
This isn’t just any covered bridge. It is a humpback bridge which is designed with a slight arch in the middle.
I pause from this story to tell you another story.
The county where I live has four surviving covered bridges. It used to be five but the fifth was destroyed by arson a few years ago. That bridge was a humpback bridge and thought to be one of the rarest in the nation.
It was a common target for vandals but a spectacular sight to behold on the country road where it was located.
So when a sign pointed me toward another humpback bridge, I had no choice but to go find it.
Built in 1857, this bridge spans Dunlap Creek in Allegheny County, Virginia. It was closed to traffic in 1929, replaced by a modern bridge and left to be used by a farmer for hay storage for some time.
Luckily, it has been repaired to accommodate foot traffic. At a hundred feet long, it’s an impressive bridge and picturesque.
There’s a tidy little park here with room to picnic. If you’re so inclined you can scurry down the bank to skip stones through the stream.
If you go, the Humpback Bridge can be reached from Interstate 64 by taking exit 10 to Route 60. Just follow the signs from there.
One goal of this road trip was to cruise along the famed Skyline Drive and take in the majesty of fall. Another was to hike in the Shenandoah National Park, stretching my legs along trails with beautiful vistas and access to old farms whose inhabitants have long abandoned them.
None of this went as planned.
I did drive much of Skyline Drive, the 105 mile byway that begins at Royal, Virginia and stretches the length of the park before ending at the famed Blue Ridge Parkway.
This twisty mountain road can be accessed by a few different entrances to the park. On Friday afternoon, I arrived at the Swift Run Gap entrance and waited in a short line to pay for my entry and begin exploring.
The sky was grey but not discouraging motorists from taking advantage of the many pull offs from which you have a view that seems to go on forever.
I arrived too late to feel good about hiking so I stuck to the drive, traveling about 80 miles of the 105 mile road.
Being a holiday weekend in fall, the visitors centers, roads, restrooms, trailheads and lodges were all quite busy.
The next day, I arrived early to beat the crowds and get in a hike but quickly abandoned my plans. I intended to hike a couple of different trails before rain moved in later that day but mountain weather can be unpredictable, a lesson hard learned on other occasions. With high winds that literally took the hat off my head and storm clouds forming in the distance, I abandoned my original plans in favor of some shorter hikes that kept me near the car.
The best of these was a section of the Appalachian trail that features large boulders, a host of trees and colors, and a mixture of living and dead ferns.
I never thought I would use the word magical to describe dead ferns but this forest floor of fading ferns was like something from a fairy tale.
I only hiked a couple of miles that day, a far cry from the plan but I have learned it best to exercise caution when storms threaten the mountains and that plans are made to be changed.
I enjoyed my beautiful hike and headed down the mountain. Turns out, a storm threatened off and on all day everywhere I went but I never saw actual rain until later that night. I don’t know what happened in the park but I was at peace with my decision to cut my losses and go find something else to do.
This is the day that I found the working gristmill and had time to tour a plantation. It’s also the day that I found a wonderful used bookstore and went back to the hotel for a delightful bubble bath.
Truth be told, that park feels like it’s designed for tourists who want to drive, look at stuff from the safety of their car and get pizza afterward. The trailheads lack adequate parking and one of the trails I wanted to do, a moderate two mile loop, had no parking at all. Each scenic overlook has mostly the same view as the last. I don’t mean to insult anyone’s favorite park because I had a fine time but don’t feel a draw to go back again soon.
If I had stayed at one of the park’s three lodges or had better hiking weather I may have a different assessment. All the same, there was a ton to do in the area and I don’t at all regret my decision to visit.
Striking, isn’t it? It’s just one of many pretty small town and country churches I photographed this road trip.
This is in a tiny town called White Post that has a number of interesting things including a restored Sinclair gas station, a couple of churches, and some lovely homes that looked like they belong on a New England calendar of fall foliage.
The town takes its name from a white post located at an intersection in the middle of the village. It was erected in the 1760’s supposedly to point the way to the estate of Thomas, Sixth Lord of Fairfax.
It’s always fun to imagine the prosperity and former looks of a town like this and to wonder how they ever afforded a church so grand.
I have some regrets about White Post. First is that the weather was nasty and the second is that I didn’t park the car and explore a little more. It really was picturesque even if the sky was gloomy.
I’ve said it here before but will say it again. If you have the time. Take the time to look around. It’s easier to do it while you’re there than to go find it again some other day!
Virginia’s foliage was muted this weekend and still turning in places but I think this is a beautiful view.
Being here was the result of what we will refer to as a tangent. You see, I was driving somewhere when I got distracted by a sign to a town called Berryville. Intrigued by the name, I decided to follow the road to see for myself if it is as picturesque as the name suggests.
But then I found another tiny town with some cute things to photograph. After leaving there, I was serious about getting to Berryville but then there was this sign for a grist mill that indicated they were grinding that day.
I have visited grist mills before but had never seen one work so it seemed smart to go check it out.
Following the signs led to a few more stops before reaching this beautiful old mill. It’s called Locke’s Mill and it has existed on this site since the 18th century. Flooding damaged previous buildings and forced construction of this one a little further up the hill from the exact original site. The current structure was built in the 1860’s and has been recently restored.
I got a nice tour and explanation of the technology from this fellow named Roger and was able to buy some pancake mix that was made from buckwheat ground here.
I did eventually make it to Berryville despite all the tangents that captured my attention along the way. Honestly, I don’t recall much about the town except that it seemed nice.
I tell you this to illustrate a point. Sometimes the destination isn’t nearly so important as the journey. Enjoy the road there and you’ll never be disappointed at what you find when you arrive.
There is no better food for my soul than a good road trip. That’s why I took a long weekend and went down to the Shenandoah Valley for some history, hiking, sightseeing and airplanes.
I’m sad to say the weather didn’t cooperate and actually interfered with most of what I had planned but created opportunity to do some other stuff. The thing I most looked forward to was the Flying Circus Air Show and a biplane ride over the Virginia countryside.
It was rained out.
The day I wanted to hike turned wicked cold with wind so strong it threatened to blow me off the mountain. Even when it was not raining, the sky was a flat white, making poor conditions for landscape photography most of the time.
Luckily, I’m good at improvising and was so happy to be away from home that I was thrilled to embrace the unplanned in the name of adventure.
Boring skies make for great black and white landscapes and rainy days are perfect for roaming museums and bookshops. And again, at least it was a change of scenery.
It wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for but it was better in some ways….. except for the plane ride, of course. I’m still stinging over that loss but there’s always next year.
Stay tuned as I start sorting through pictures and begin telling some of the stories from the weekend which featured a lot of interesting sights and history themes.
Meanwhile, the top photo is from a drive through rural West Virginia where the foliage was gorgeous as well as the second photo from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.