Shenandoah National Park
I’m getting busier than ever these days. My day job as a receptionist, my nights practicing the fine art of tattooing, my free time spent drawing for appointments or working on improvements to my van…there wasn’t as much time for outdoor adventures this fall as I thought there’d be. I imagined sitting by a fire, wrapped in flannel, sipping whiskey, a scattering of stars visible through the leaves above me. I imagined having that experience a dozen times this season…but I’ve been prioritizing my apprenticeship above everything else, and it’s about to be November.
My tattooing apprenticeship is winding down (I should be finished in a week or so!!) and things will only get more intense for me from here. So, recognizing that, I seized the opportunity of the last free weekend I might have for a while, and took a solo roadtrip down to Virginia’s gorgeous Shenandoah National Park.
The drive down from Philly takes about four hours, and I did it in two parts. I finish at the salon around 8 pm on Saturdays, so after work I went to Starbucks to get coffee, wifi, and a warm place to spread out my stuff and draw. After finishing a tattoo design for the coming week, I left the coffee shop again, gassed up the van, and drove two hours south to a TA truck stop in east Baltimore, near the interstate. I slept in a slightly shady parking lot by the TA motel, where random people were milling around at midnight. The next morning as I left, I saw a giant “unauthorized vehicles will be towed” sign, which would have been a deterrent, but I got a decent night’s sleep, and no one hassled me…will not be a repeat incognito sleeper there though.
I had never been to Baltimore before, so I drove around the downtown area, getting a feel for things. It was pretty quiet at 7am on a Sunday, and I took advantage of the stillness, parking the van in random spots and taking some pictures. I went to Whole Foods (camping snack supplies, including vegan peanut butter cups and Field Roast sausages), and then went to a nearby vegan restaurant that was supposed to be good. It wasn’t…the food was mediocre, as was the service, so I won’t mention them here.
Finally, I got back in the van and drove the last two hours to Shenandoah. A big piece of my childhood was spent in Virginia, but I haven’t been back there since. It was a strange feeling driving down the highway and seeing signs for places that were distantly familiar, evoking shadowy memories. I’d been to this national park at least once before, back before my father retired from the Navy, and we were living in Fairfax. My only real memory of it was the Appalachian Trail. I was young, probably under 10, and I remember stepping onto it, and looking down the trail with the impression that it went on forever. My parents told me that it stretched all the way up the coast to Maine, and the urge to start walking it came over me. I remember literally nothing else about that trip, but the AT has stuck with me ever since. Anyways, that was what I was thinking about as I got closer to the park, and I started feeling amped as fuck, eager to get out and take a Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson reference, heh heh).
After paying my $30 to get in, I started driving down Skyline Drive, and I’ll tell you what, dude…that road blew my mind. Less than a mile from the entrance was the first overlook, and the panoramic view of the Shenandoah Valley spread out under a light cloud cover, patches of green farmland intermingled with stretches of forest, the occasional shaft of sunlight sliding over everything before fading away again…it was natural splendor on a level I’ve rarely seen in person. I stood there slack-jawed for a while, then opened the sliding door of the van and sat a while longer, just looking.
I spent most of the rest of the day doing the same thing. Driving a little farther, coming up on the next overlook, and getting sucked into another epic, breathtaking view. Skyline Drive is kind of cheating. I feel like views that amazing should only be a reward after a long hike or something. However, the Drive also makes this the perfect park for anyone who can’t hike, or doesn’t have much bodily mobility, but still wants to be out in nature, see mountains (maybe even bears), and breathe in clean misty air. At my fourth or fifth stop at an overlook, I was having a quick snack, while sitting on the short stone wall that makes a barrier between the road and a steep decline covered in trees and underbrush. My snack was vegan spicy queso and tortilla chips. I don’t know if it was the crunching sound of the chips, the scent of the cashews in the “cheese”, or just dumb luck…but I glanced up and saw a dark shape about 10 feet away from me. My first thought was that it was someone’s dog, but then the rounded shape of the ears registered, and I realized I was looking at a bear cub!!
He/she was partially hidden in the long grass, and we were both still for a moment, just watching each other. Then, I slowly got up, opened the sliding door of the van, and grabbed my phone. The cub was considerate enough to wait for me to snap a quick picture before turning away from me, and disappearing down the mountainside, probably back towards Momma Bear. That was one of the best moments of the trip for me, obviously. I’d never seen a bear in the wild before, and always wanted to. If you’re the same, definitely go to Shenandoah. I was there two days, and saw a bear each of those days. The second one wasn’t nearly as exciting, but still pretty damn cool. I was driving back up Skyline Drive, on my way out of the park, and a huge black shape loped onto the road. This was a big guy, definitely no cub. He saw the van coming towards him, and ran back into the woods the way he’d come. Amazing.
Anyways, after spending hours driving very slowly south through the park, taking hundreds of pictures on the way, I arrived at my campground, Matthew’s Arm. It was not exactly what I pictured…there was a paved road looping through the whole camp, and my site was just a small grassy spot with a fire pit and a picnic bench, next to a short driveway for the van. There weren’t many other people though, and the woods stretched away undisturbed in every direction, so I was happy enough with it. After a quick trip the the nearby Wayside, a small camp store where I picked up firewood, soda, and a few other little things, I parked for the night. I made a fire, pulled all the food out of my van, and started making dinner.
It was kind of a weird feeling, being so alone out in the middle of the woods. I felt lonely for a little bit, but then bucked that feeling by keeping busy. I made chickpea salad for sandwiches for the next day, and ate a few forkfulls of it while I waited for my vegan sausages to cook. They were delicious, the campfire was warm, and a breeze was shifting all the leaves in the trees around me. All in all, it was just the kind of experience I was looking for.
The air got pretty cold after the sun went down, and the trees turned into an impenetrable wall of black around me. I was thinking more about bears as I tidied up the campsite, making sure where were no food scraps left behind. I holed up in my van, under a mound of blankets, and watched movies until I fell asleep. A pretty perfect first day in Shenandoah.
The next morning, I woke up feeling invigorated, but not really sure what I wanted to do that day. It was a Monday, and I had to be back in Philly for work Tuesday morning…so I already felt the pressure of a quickly dwindling weekend. I decided to drive farther south down Skyline, to about the halfway point of the park, and then drive back north, stopping somewhere on the way to do a cool hike. I went all the way down to what I think is the main visitor’s center. I bought souvenirs for my family, and some stickers for the van, of course, and got a blackbean burger for lunch in the little restaurant there. The Dark Hollow Falls hiking trail was just up the road from the visitor’s center, and I liked the name of it (and you probably already know how I feel about waterfalls), so that’s the hike I chose. It was relatively short, I spent less than two hours on it. It was a little steep, but nothing compared to the Buttermilk Falls hike I did in the Poconos. The waterfall was beautiful, and the woods were damp and mossy, with greenish afternoon light filtering down through the trees. I feel so at peace when I’m hiking, corny but true.
When I got back to the van, I put my GoPro in the dashboard mount, and recorded a time-lapse of the drive back north through the park. When I finally get my act together with making YouTube videos out of all the footage I have, I’ll add the video for this trip below. This is the point where I saw the second bear, but it might have been too quick for the camera to pick up in time-lapse mode…I haven’t even checked to see yet (YouTuber fail). I felt kind of sad driving back out of the main northbound exit of the park…I easily could have spent a week there. Two days was much too short. Overall, this was one of the best weekends I’ve had this fall. It was quiet, solitary, full of sensational views, wildlife, and much needed rest.
The next roadtrip for me will probably be going back to Rhode Island for Thanksgiving, but I hope to make some stops on the way, and have it be a great mini-vacation. More coming soon, and thanks for reading!!
Feel free to click on the picture below for a slideshow of some of my favorite pics from the trip, including the bear cub, my campsite, and the epic mountain views! Xoxo.
