Skyline Drive and Dark Hollow Falls

This morning, Virginia made us baked eggs and asparagus for breakfast, with melon balls and beef kielbasa. Dennis also had latkes, which he said were very good.

Our original plan was to go to the Luray Caverns but when we got there it was pretty crowded with a long line. We decided to go driving along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, instead. The $15 entrance fee is good for 7 days.

Upon entering at mile marker 30, we headed south towards the Dark Hollow Falls parking area at mile mark 50. The 20 miles took us awhile since the speed limit was 35 mph and there were lots of viewpoints along the way.

The road was beautiful, with lush green trees. At one point, as we were driving, we came across a fawn and it’s mother right on the side of the road. We stopped right beside them but didn’t manage to snap a photo, unfortunately.

We also stopped at Skyland Lodge, which had restrooms and a gift shop. I bought a magnet (as is my tradition) and a ton of postcards. Eventually we made our way to the trailhead.

The trail itself is a well-defined 1.4 mile loop to the base of the Dark Hollow Falls. It was a nice walk down and not overly crowded, perhaps because it was overcast. The falls were very pretty and we sat on a nice, flat rock in the middle of the stream and ate nuts and enjoyed the view. The only wildlife we experienced was a chipmunk, but we did see some cool orange mushrooms.

The return to the car was 0.7 miles up, but it wasn’t too bad. By the time we made it back to the car, we started hearing thunder. We made another pit stop at Skyland lodge to use the restrooms and refill our water bottle before heading for the park exit.

Along the way I was trying to keep an eye out for wildlife but I was terrible at it. Dennis, who was driving, saw a badger sitting on a low stone wall. I completely missed it so he turned around and drove back. When we passed the spot again the badger was still there, but the moment he saw us he jumped off the wall and headed for the brush so I only had a quick look at him.

About ten minutes later we spotted what appeared to be a black deer grazing by the side of the road, on the other side of another low stone wall. The animal’s head was down so all we could see was a bony rump. There was a lookout point 50 feet later so Dennis pulled the car over while I jumped out to investigate. As I got closer the animal stood up on his hind legs and looked right at me. It was a baby black bear! I couldn’t contain myself and chirped in a giddy voice, “it’s a bear!” At that moment a car sped quickly by, very near the bear, and he got spooked and ran back into the woods.

***This is not my photo*** but he looked just like this.

By the time Dennis had parked and caught up with me, the baby bear was long gone. We followed a nearby path to see if we could find him so Dennis could see him, too, but we didn’t have any luck. We got back in the car and headed back to the B&B, without seeing any other wildlife.

Back at the cottage, Virginia had made our bed and left us fruit parfaits in the fridge. We ate our parfaits while we watched The Graduate, which neither of us had seen before. We were enjoying the movie but we were too tired to stay up any longer and ended up passing out half way through.


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