I decided to make the most of the rare trip back east by tacking on a few days in Shenandoah National Park after AGU. Other than the Everglades, this would be my first real back east national park. The Friday rush hour adventure escaping from Washington D.C. was the stuff of nightmares. Alternate traffic routing inconsistent with my phone app caused several wrong turns ending up in literal loops to make forward progress. Progress was brutally slow. I hope to live a long life free from too much more traffic like that. Eventually things got rural and I drove on through the dark rain to the isolated cabin in the woods at the base of Old Rag Mountain. Generally the weather was more conducive to staying warm and dry in the cabin but I did venture out enough to feel like I had seen the right amount of the national park. Other than the lack of people the other advantage to the weather was that the creeks and waterfalls were in top form. Photos of features I visited online showed little summer trickles- I got to see the full force of the falls in flood which I was thankful for. Walking through a forest stripped bare of leaves was quite the contrast to the forests I was used to in California. It made it easier to see the deer at least.
South River Falls
The two highlight walks were probably the short stroll to South River Falls and a longer more adventurous hike to the waterfalls in White Oak Canyon, which required several brain numbing creek crossings. Sections of White Oak looked like they'd be a lot of fun in a packraft. On the last day I drove Skyline Drive along the crest of the Blue Ridge from Swift Run Gap to the north end of the park at Front Royal. It was nice enough but pretty monotonous scenery. I was glad to visit but the take home for me was thankfulness that I grew up enjoying western national parks. Shenandoah made for a relaxing break.
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