Doggy Adventures In Shenandoah

It's finally feeling like fall around here, so we decided to take advantage of the little bit of good weather we've had lately and took a quick trip this past weekend. This time, the doggies came with, too!

Giz figured out that he could stick his head out the window while we drove. I don't know why it took him so long to figure out that this was a thing. A bit of driving later...

...we were hiking in Shenandoah National Park. Wembles made sure to thoroughly inspect this log at the beginning of the hike.

We decided to start the trip with the Hawksbill Summit Loop. It's about 3 miles long and takes you to the top of Hawksbill, which is the highest point in Shenandoah at 4049'. The first mile or so is pretty steep...

...but the view is worth it. The dogs did pretty well with the climb, though Bacon was moving a bit slower than the other two. She would walk for a little while, then suddenly realize that the other two dogs and Mark were way far ahead, then sprint up the hill to catch up with them. No wonder she was getting tired!

We took a short break at the top to enjoy the view and make sure the doggies got some water.

Mark made sure the wiener dogs could enjoy the view, too.   :)

This is about as close to a nicely posed picture as we can get with these two...they never want to sit still!

We walked over for a quick peek at one of the other views, then made our way toward the trail back down the mountain.

There was a really nice view out to the west at the beginning of the trail.

This was the first time any of the dogs had been on this trail, and they all handled it pretty well. There were a few spots that were pretty rocky, but they all seemed to handle weaving around the rocks just fine.

Wembles liked to stop to sniff things when we got to one of the rockier parts.

These berries were all over the place along the trail. Some of the leaves were just starting to turn yellow, too. It's going to be really pretty in a couple weeks!

Toward the end of the hike the dogs were starting to get a little tired. We had to pick them all up to cross one especially rocky section of the trail. I guess 3 miles is a decent distance for those tiny legs.

My camera lens fogged up when I took this picture, but by the time we got back to the car Wembles was ready for a break. She just stood there and stared at the door until we opened it so she could get in. Very subtle.   :)

After the hike, we drove a few minutes along Skyline Drive, made a quick stop at the Skyland office, then...

...went to our hotel room! We were able to book a pet-friendly room again, so we would be spending the night like we did last year.

We were in the same building (though a different room), and the views were just as good as I remembered. We hung out for a while in the room to get the dogs settled in before heading out to dinner.

It was really pretty as the sun started to set.

Mark and I got the dogs settled in, then walked back up to the Dining Room for dinner. Everything was pretty tasty. They had cloggers dancing in the Taproom, so we wound up grabbing a drink and watching them for a little while, too, before heading back to the room for the night.

Gee, sure is tough being a tiny wiener dog...we spent the night watching some goofy reality TV before heading to bed a bit early.

We knew it was going to be cloudy the next day, but we didn't know until we woke up the next morning that we would be IN the cloud. This was the view on the walk up to the Dining Hall for breakfast.

It may not have been as scenic as normal, but at least there was coffee! Breakfast was really good, and we took a quick walk through the gift shop before heading back to the room.

Yup, still foggy. We had originally planned to take the dogs hiking again, but it was so cold and damp that we decided to just pack up and head home instead. It stayed pretty foggy until the road started to slope back down a bit.

Most of the overlooks were completely fogged in, but once in a while you could see down into the valley to the west.

This was looking out toward the northeast. We eventually dropped down below the clouds and made our way back home. It would have been fun to hike a bit more, but it was also nice to be home from a trip and still have the whole afternoon free. I'm hoping to get back out there for some more hiking soon...it should be really pretty once the leaves start to change!