Another October Hike

We lucked out with the weather again in October, and managed to sneak in a second hike. This time, we decided to hike Mary's Rock. It's a few miles round trip with a pretty view, plus the trail starts right after you reach Skyline Drive, so it's really easy to get to.

A lot of the trail looks like this: a thin path through the trees, with a bit of a drop on one side.

There are some nice views here and there, though...

...and some cool plants to look at along the way.

A little bit more hiking later...

...we reached the summit. That's Skyline Drive and the entrance to Shenandoah National Park down there.

With the exception of a couple other people that came and went, Mark and I pretty much had the summit to ourselves.

It was a little cloudy, but the views were still great.

I always love the layers of the ridges.

When the layers fade out like this, it always reminds me of a three-layer Jello dessert that my mom would sometimes make when I was a kid. I don't know if they still sell it, but the colors of the layers of Jello would fade just like the colors of these ridges.

We eventually started making our way back to the car. The hike is an out-and-back, so you retrace your route right back to the start.

We were getting pretty close to the end of the hike when I started to hear some noises off the side of the trail. We were almost back to the parking lot when we rounded the last corner and saw...

...this. The noises turned out to be a bear scratching its back on a utility pole.

After a couple seconds, it turned and saw us. I'll tell you what, it's an interesting feeling when you lock eyes with a nearby bear! It started wandering back into the woods off to the side, and we booked it to the parking lot. It had definitely been an interesting hike!

Hawksbill Hiking

Our luck with the weather continued to hold in early October, so the day after I flew up to NJ, Mark and I were able to get up to Shenandoah for some hiking.

We started with a quick stop at an apple orchard along the way. They always have all sorts of tasty apples, so we try to pick some up whenever we're out that way.

We were in the mood for something that ended in pretty views, so we decided to hike to the top of Hawksbill, which is the highest point in Shenandoah National Park. The first mile or so feels like it goes straight up; this picture doesn't do justice to how steep it can be!

I just used the incline as an excuse to stop and take pictures along the way. I found a chipmunk...

...and some neat looking leaves.

After a little while, we popped out at the top of the trail.

After all the crummy weather we'd had over the past few months, it was so nice to get some pretty views!

The actual summit was just a short walk away, so we followed the trail...

...to some more pretty views.

You could see Old Rag in the distance; I'm hoping to hike that again sometime soon.

We spent a few minutes at the summit, enjoying the views.

The rippled hills on the left side are some of my favorites.   :)

After enjoying the views for a bit, we started hiking back down along a couple other trails. With all the rain we'd had, there were lots of neat mushrooms on the sides of the trail.

After a while, the trail meets up with the Appalachian Trail, and we followed that back toward the car. I always like the rocky sections that open up to pretty views.

We continued along for a bit, and I stopped to take some pictures once in a while. I thought these leaves looked neat.

This was just a few minutes before we got back to the car. The white slash on the tree is a trail marker for the Appalachian Trail.

We made our way back to the car, took a few minutes to have a snack, then started heading home. We had seen some clouds starting to move in while we were hiking, so I asked Mark to stop at a couple overlooks on our way out.

That's Old Rag again in the distance; the top of the mountain was already hidden by clouds.

Looking west; you could see some showers starting to move into the valley. It had been really nice to get back outside again for a hike, and we wound up having great timing with the weather!

Shenandoah Hiking

We lucked out and actually got some fall weather this year! I almost didn't know what to do with myself with all of the nice weather in October. Mark and I decided to take advantage of it and tried out a new hike up in Shenandoah.

The hike would eventually take us up to Little Stony Man Cliffs, via the Appalachian Trail. It was a pretty straightforward out-and-back hike, and was about 4 miles round trip.

We saw a wild turkey along the way! I've never seen one of these up in Shenandoah before, and it was only a few feet off the trail.

It kept a sharp eye on us as we walked past, but it left us alone.

In some spots, the trail ran right below Skyline Drive; we could see the walls of a few of the overlooks as we hiked along. We may have pretended to be bears at one point when we heard voices above us at the overlook.   :)

After a little while, we made it to Little Stony Man Cliffs. The view was pretty nice...

...and the visibility was fantastic.

We hung out at the top for a little while...

...then eventually started making our way back to the car.

Some of the leaves had already blown off the trees, but there was a little fall color here and there. We made it back to the car after a little while. No more turkeys, but we did make some more bear noises below the overlooks.   :)

We had driven Mark's Datsun up to Skyline Drive, and we stopped at a few overlooks on the way out. It was a perfect day to cruise around in a car like that! We eventually made our way out of the park...

...and stopped at the grocery store on the way home. Turns out you can fit an entire shopping cart of groceries in the back and still have space left over. Overall, it was a fun hike and drive!