We are way behind with this blog. The events described here took place in late October 2018.
As noted in the last post, we headed for the Shenandoah National Park after Washington. Our plan was to visit a few different states, particularly driving along the scenic routes marked on our maps. Most of the pictures we took in this period were from “overlooks” where there is space to safely pull off the road and a pleasant view. Many of them are panoramas, but in some places the trees have grown back and hidden the vista.
Shenandoah National Park is a long, thin piece of public land in the state of Virginia. It is traversed lengthwise by the Skyline Drive, a delightful road with many attractive places to stop.
One of the views from Skyline Drive
A morsel of the drive itself
New England isn't the only place in America where the trees put on pleasing autumn colours.
The park does have trails for all levels of dedication, and we went with the intention of enjoying some of the easier ones. Unfortunately we were there at a weekend, the “last weekend of the season”, and so were many other people. The car parks for the trails are generally quite small and the congestion left no room for a large motor home. So we didn't walk any trails.
Shenandoah was the first national park we'd visited in the USA. Entry was $25, but we paid $80 for an annual pass. It gets us in to all the national parks and many other places, such as wildlife refuges. It's wonderful value.
The pleasant ranger who took our money reassured us that our vehicle would get through the low bridge. Clearance was shown as 12ft 8in on the sign at the gate, and we look for 13ft to be sure. She assured us that the sign gave the minimum height at the edge of the road. Even larger RVs had clearance in the centre. But she warned that the campgrounds might be full because of the extra popular weekend although there were plenty of sites available at 8am. Bearing this in mind we didn't stop too often before we got to the first campground. Alas, the “Campground full” sign was out. And at the other one. Bother.
The scenery was delightful, and although we didn't get far off the road we did see some wildlife. A bear ran across the road in front of us. It was a small black bear. It was surprising to see a youngster so late in the year.
Another scenic view.
We ended up parking in a picnic area. There were no visible signs to tell us not to, but just after dark a ranger knocked on the door and told us that overnight parking was not allowed here. We weren't surprised. We explained that we had tried to get into both campgrounds and asked where could we park legally. We also described our unreliable headlights. The kind young man decided that, as a safety matter, he could not insist that we move on and allowed us to stay where we were. Thank you, Ranger.
We encountered the low bridge on the second day. We approached very carefully and did not hit anything. Whew.
An abandoned building that we encountered somewhere along the highway after we left the national park.
In West Virginia we encountered a National River. This was a new concept for us, as New Zealand does not have any national rivers. But you can read about the New River Gorge National River here. It is administered by the National Park Service and seems to function like a national park.
The most promoted element of the park is the New River Gorge Bridge, which certainly provides a splendid image. A helpful young man at an information center let us into a secret, that the bridge itself is easily accessible, but the picture postcard view requires quite a hike. His recommendation was to take a minor road to Grandview to see the gorge and then to drive South along the East bank of the river to Hinton, cross the river and drive North to get a close up view of the Sandstone Falls.
We did go to Grandview. It was not a difficult road to drive, and appeared to be a popular place to live if you had a bit of money. There were many large, new houses on sizeable plots of land.
A view of the gorge.
A 2-track railway runs alongside the river.
The was an overlook on the way to Hinton that afforded a clear sight of the Sandstone Falls. We admired them, and took their picture and decided to save ourselves from doubling back on the other side of the river.
The Sandstone Falls.
The encyclopaedia tells us that the Missouri River is the longest in America, but we're not so sure. The number of times we crossed Beaver Creek it has to be a notably long waterway. We must have driven over it in every Canadian province and in several of the United States.†
This section of the New River flows from South to North, which our intuition told us was away from the sea and therefore the wrong way. It joins with the Gauley River to form the Kanawha River at Gauley Bridge. Thereafter its waters flow into the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to reach the Gulf of Mexico, well to the South. However, its location and direction led George Washington to consider the possibility of building a canal to incorporate the New River into a network of navigable waterways.
A splendid example of sedimentary rock layers beside the New River.
Yet another lovely Appalachian view.
Our route took us back into Virginia, where many place names record their importance to travellers crossing the Appalachians. Such as Big Stone Gap, which was one of the few towns where we were turned away from a Walmart parking lot. Walmart were willing, but they didn't own the parking lot. We had to double back to Norton, and paused at Benge's Gap.
Powell Valley from Benge's Gap.
A couple of photogenic teasels.
The story of Chief Benge. Click on the image to enlarge it.
We got very excited when we refuelled here. It was the first time we encountered gasoline at less than $2.50 per gallon. Further South, though, it was significantly cheaper. Our best deal was $2.099 in South Carolina, and about 10 miles further on we saw prices just below $2.00 in Anderson SC.
Even more exciting was the guy at the pump ahead of us who was smoking while he filled his pickup's tank.
Perhaps the most famous of the mountain crossings is Cumberland Gap. Both of us vaguely remembered the song of that name recorded by Lonnie Donegan. We found it on YouTube. It's a nice upbeat tune with dire lyrics.
There is now a Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, with an information center on the Kentucky side. We spent some time there and were suitably educated.
An attractive stretch of the road.
† For those who are not familiar with our sense of humour, this is a joke. We did indeed cross many waterways labelled “Beaver Creek”, but that is because it is a popular name, not because they were the same river.
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