The Drive from Altoona to Shenandoah National park took us briefly through Maryland again. Last night Neil was looking at the route and discovered that in Cumberland, Maryland we could see a little bit of the George Washington 1753 Trail. This marks the young George Washington’s first diplomatic mission to demand French troops leave land (now western Pennsylvania) claimed by England. The refusal of the French led to the “French and Indian War”. We stopped in Cumberland, Maryland to see Washington’s headquarters , a tiny log cabin. The headquarters was part of Fort Cumberland during the French and Indian War and it is the only building to survive from the original Fort.
After that brief stop we drove for a couple of hours along pretty country roads crossing into West Virginia again briefly before found ourselves back in Virginia again.
We were excited to finally arrive at the town of Fort Royal, and the entrance to the Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park. Shenandoah Park extends along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The Skyline Drive runs its length, and a section of the 2100+ mile long Appalachian Trail runs through the park. After showing our annual pass at the entrance station we stopped in at the first Visitor Center. They had a great model of the entire park which showed the drive and the Appalachian trail. The views from the visitor center were stunning and just an introduction to the fabulous views we would enjoy on our drive through the park.
A little further down the road we stopped at a picnic ground for lunch. Once again we had the entire area to ourselves. I think we’ve picked a perfect little “window” of time to visit, we’re after the summer busy season and the fall foliage has not really started yet to draw the fall crowds. The only disconcerting thing at lunch was the information on the table about bears. I later learned that Shenandoah has the densest population of Black bears in the USA. Fortunately none of them joined us for lunch!
We took a detour down off the mountain to Luray to buy some food and drink supplies and then headed back up again to Skyland Lodge, our accommodation for the night. Skyland was a popular holiday resort many years before the establishment of the National park. Around 1931, it was taken over by the Shenandoah National Park, and the Skyline Drive was built past it. Our cabin room was basic but comfortable and we had a nice little patio at the back looking into the woods with a distant view to the valley peeking through the leaves. I was keen to hike some of the Appalachian Trail which runs past the resort so we headed up to the Stoney Man Mountain Summit. A lovely walk up through the woods and a fabulous view at the top.
Heading back down the road we came across a deer quietly making his way across.
Back at the Lodge we enjoyed a drink and some nibbles on our little patio before going up to the Pollock Dining Room for dinner. We just loved our trout!
Walking back to the room we just caught a beautiful sunset through the trees.
We had a good nights sleep and as our room rate here didn’t include breakfast we decided on a scratch breakfast in our room, an apple and a muffin and left over cheese and biscuits from last nights nibbles. Then it was back out on th road to continue south for the rest of Skyline Drive. Almost straight away we came across more deer!
It was a peaceful, meandering drive past more stunning views before we finally reached the southern entrance to the park and hit the interstate for the next 2 mile drive to Charlottesville.
I was excited to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. At the visitor center we had lunch first before looking through the museum and watching an introductory movie. Then we caught the shuttle bus for the ride up Jefferson’s “little mountain” to the house. We were booked on a timed entry to see the house interior at 2.30, so we had time to wander around the exterior and see the vegetable gardens and other buildings first.
Before our tour we had a little time to see Veteran historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker portraying Thomas Jefferson. he is widely recognized as the nation’s foremost interpreter of Jefferson and really brought the man to life. Unfortunately we couldnt watch the entir performance as the time ofr our house tour arrived.
After the tour we decided to walk back down to the visitor center via the Jefferson Family Graveyard where Thomas jefferson is buried. It is quite a large graveyard stil in use today by his descendents.
It was time to head to our hotel for the night where we had a bit of a chore to do before dinner. We’ve done quite a bit of shopping over the last couple of weeks and all the shopping bags had just been piling up in the boot. We needed to organise things and make some space for Liam’s luggage as he will be joining us tomorrow in Washington DC. So all our new clothes had to come out of the (many!) bags and go into the suitcase.
Tonight we’re staying at a Homewood Suites and we just coinicentally are here the one night of the week that they offer and “Evening Reception”. Tonight’s offering was a selection of cheese and crackers, a very tasty corn chowder with bread rolls and salad, as well as wine and beer. Definitely all we needed for dinner after a busy day.
Tomorrow we head for Washington Dc and start the next phase of our trip, the last time we were in the USA with Liam was exactly 10 years ago!