Shenandoah

At my Aunt J's suggestion, T and I took a leisurely drive through part of Shenandoah National Park two weekends ago.  Well, technically she suggested Blue Ridge Parkway.  And that was the plan, but we kept stopping so we never quite got to Blue Ridge, but I imagine the scenery is incredibly similar.  Oh, this is another place that we had no idea is only two hours from D.C.!

You will definitely want to bring some snacks / a picnic.  The closest town to Shenandoah National Park has next to zero food offerings and the stops in the National Park for food are very crowded.

The first half of our outing was pretty cold.  Like "it's 44 degrees outside and we are only wearing light jackets" cold.

Also, I don't know what I did to the camera settings to make these two photos look all grainy...

We pulled over at almost every outlook.

Seriously, some good views from the tops of the Shenandoah Mountains.

We hiked Stony Man trail.  We were going to do Little Stony Man, which is supposed to be really easy, but decided to do Stony Man.  It wasn't that hard at all.  It was only 1.6 miles round trip.  It was still cold and all I had was that light jacket so I wrapped the fleece blanket we keep in the car around me as we started out.  About halfway up the sun came out and significantly warmed us up (okay, also the hiking warmed us up).  This is the view from the top.  Don't fall, T!

Sometimes looking out toward the horizon the land looked so blue that it really did look like the ocean.

Seriously, the colors were gorgeous.

T rocking the self-photo.

I stopped on the trail back down to take this photo looking straight up.  I think it is my favorite photo of the day.

The sun made it warmer, but it was still cold because of the wind.  Check out my hair!

Getting out and wandering about provided us with some great views, but even just driving was lovely.

So, Shenandoah = a BIG yes to visit in the fall.  The colors in our neighborhood have been quite lovely lately, too.  Go fall!!!