Shenandoah National Park, Aug 22-24 2020
Shenandoah National Park, Aug 22-24 2020
It’s been 1 year since I started journey from my home to study Masters in the US. After an exciting & demanding Spring semster with adapting to online workflows and doing a virtual internship with Adobe over the summer, this trip is a definite MUST.
Day 1, Pack Your Bags
Onboarded on to trip in the morning with my roommates speeding on to National highways in a self driving car, with the excitement of first road trip in US. Crossing 4 states from NJ via Delaware, Maryland to Virginia we have reached Bears Den, Bluemont for an Airbnb stay overnight. Stay at a house surrounded by forest with many trails around is a great place to start the trip with. Awestruck on knowing about the great Applachian trail of length 2200 miles spanning accross 14 states starting from Georgia ending in Maine. Tightened the shoes and embarked on to touch the Applachian trail. Yes, our first stay is right beside this great trail which is unplanned. After hiking for 1-2 miles on Applachian trail we rested sometime at the Bears Rock view point. After a sumptuous pizza dinner (my favorite) and a couple of card games we went to sleep hoping for the exciting and tiring Old Rag trail the next day.
Day 2, Hawksbill trail & Dark Hollow waterfalls
Started from Bears Den which is 1 hour drive from Shenandoah National Park to do Old Rag trail which has total circuit length of 9 miles with an elevation gain of 800 meters and rock scramble for almost one third of it and rated as difficult trail taking 7-8 hours. Reached Shenandoah national park and entering through the Skyline Drive of the park was a breathtaking view literally which made me take a deep breath unconsciously. As we are already late into the noon of the day, starting Old Rag trail at that time will extend the trekking till night. Based on suggestions we postponed Old Rag to next day and proceeded to visit Hawksbill trail and then Dark Hollow waterfalls. Needless to say the views are very good and we water of the waterfalls is freezing cold. Returning from waterfalls we checked into cottage stay for the night at Big Meadows inside the Shenandoah National Park. Cottages are situated in the middle of forest surrounding with greenary is a great place to drench yourself in peace and solitude. A book in the hand elevates the experience to a whole another level. In the night we set out in the car to explore around the cottage with fear and excitement of spotting a black bear, one of the major inhabitants of national park. We then went to a relatively flat area of land in the park, from which we have a wide visibility of the night sky with many stars. With the help of neighbors we were able to spot Ursa major, Jupiter, Saturn which is one of memorable experiences.