30 September-4 October: Our last objective on our way home was to camp and hike in Shenandoah NP. This wasn’t far from the home of Paul’s second cousin Cindy and her husband Paul in Charlottesville, Va., providing a good excuse for an overnight visit with them. Growing up, we would often see each other on summer visits to our grandmothers’ adjacent summer houses on Cape Cod. Some fifty years later, we are grandparents, so we enjoyed showing pictures and talking about our own grandchildren, and also reminiscing about some of our travels over the past decades.
After arriving at our campground in Shenandoah in mid-afternoon, we went for a hike on Bearfence Mountain. The clockwise loop we took ascended a ridge, followed the ridge crest over the “Rock Scramble,” passed a couple of very good outlooks, then reached a junction with the Appalachian Trail, which descended gently to the trailhead parallel to but downslope of the ridge crest. The Rock Scramble section threaded among rough and angular pieces of metamorphosed volcanic rock that were jumbled together, with thin edges projecting upward and sloping faces, making for challenging footing and slow progress. We were rewarded amply, though, by the great views from the top and the easy second half of our loop.
The next morning, we hiked around a counter clockwise loop on the park’s highest peak, Hawksbill Mountain. At the top was a fine viewing platform with plenty of space not to feel crowded, even on this fine sunny Saturday. Many of the hikers had made shorter climbs to the summit as out-and-back hikes rather than the loop we did, but our route was only three miles, not very steep, and we thought the Salamander Trail (which was not part of the shorter climbs) was a very pleasant path. Noticeable along the trail were the fruits of mountain ash and witch hazel. After hiking, we had plenty of time to relax at our campsite and enjoy some of the early fall color.
When we left Shenandoah, we were only a two-day drive from home. On our last camping night, in central New York, we were subjected to the first rain since our first day out, two and a half months before.
It was a great trip, but it was also good to get back home before freezing temperatures set in. This trip was definitely more biased toward family visits than our earlier long trips were. Spending quality time with our little granddaughters was priceless, though, and they will all too soon be more absorbed in a lot more than just having fun with grandparents.
We did notice that our hikes and bike rides weren’t usually as long as on previous trips—is it just because we are getting older, or was it that the heat in the Southwest was warmer this year than normal? We managed to meet some nice people along the way, and see several beautiful and interesting places, too. The scenery in Chiricahua probably impressed us the most, but each state has no shortage of special places to explore.