Felix and I decided that for our vacation this year, we’d visit some friends and some parks in the mid Atlantic area. We flew out late on a Friday night to Raleigh, North Carolina, stayed overnight, and rented a car. First stop was to meet up with Felix’s friend Laura. We went on some hikes with her (I don’t have pictures). Next, we drove to Greensboro, NC to see my college/work friend, Mitchell and his fiancé, Olivia. We stayed overnight with them and then went to the Carolina Renaissance Festival. I’ve been to two ren faires around Boston and this faire was definitely the best I’ve ever been to. It was big and had lots of vendors and shows and all the buildings were in theme. Also, it was supposed to rain and it didn’t, so that was great. 

On Monday morning we said goodbye to our friends and headed to West Virginia to see New River Gorge National Park. We stopped first at the Sandstone visitor center in the southern region of the park, and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was open despite the government shutdown. Thanks NPS! We then drove to a short boardwalk trail that took us out to the falls, which were a very wide group of waterfalls crossing the New River. Fun fact: the New River is actually one of the oldest rivers in the world. It’s believed that the name came about because explorers mapping the region found it and wrote in “New River” as a placeholder on their maps, and the name stuck. 

Next we drove to the Grand View region of the park. This area had an observation platform with a nice view of a big bend in the river. 

We hiked the Castle Rock trail, which was a short but very rocky trail that took us along some big rock walls. One of the cliffs had a coal seam at the bottom of it. We walked under some big rock overhangs that made me nervous because they looked like they might topple over at any time. 

We then did another short hike called the Tunnel Trail which seemed to be the family-friendly version of the Castle Rock trail. It had some big rocks but was flat and easy. I was disappointed that the tunnel that the trail is named for it blocked off. We found another rock structure that I guess counted as a tunnel.

We had a bit of sunlight left at the end of the day so we went to a small state park that was nearby. I was hoping to find an Almost Heaven swing (more on that later), which I heard were in most West Virginia state parks, but this park didn’t have one. It did have some regular swings that we hung out on. We got dinner at a Cracker Barrel (trying to get the southern experience) and called it a night. 

The next morning, we drove to the northern area of the park to do the Endless Wall Trail. This is one of the most popular hikes in the park so I wanted to do it early. That backfired a bit as the area was extremely foggy that morning. The trail is a 3-mile loop that goes along a long rock cliff on the gorge. The trail isn’t literally along the cliff, it’s in forest, but it has a lot of short side trails where you can see views of the gorge. Theoretically. We got to our first viewpoint and laughed because we could see absolutely nothing.

I was disappointed but we continued along the trail, periodically checking the views. We could see that we were on some big scary cliffs. I could hear the New River somewhere below us. But no views. Finally near the end of our hike, the fog started to clear and we could see some views of the river (through light fog). We could also see some of the long wall we were hiking against. This was moderately redeeming. I think this hike would have been fantastic on a clearer day. 

Next we went to the Canyon Rim Visitor center and walked a boardwalk out to a viewing area of the New River Gorge Bridge, which is the iconic landmark of the park. The bridge is the largest steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere. 

We grabbed some lunch and then went to our Bridge Walk! The bridge has a steel catwalk going under it and a local company takes tour groups out for walks under the bridge. You have to wear a safety harness and you’re tethered to an overhead wire the whole time, but it’s pretty spooky. Especially because you can feel the whole bridge shaking every time a truck goes over it. 

We were in a tour group of about a dozen people and had a tour guide who periodically stopped everyone to tell us information about the bridge. Felix was pretty nervous (he’s scared of heights) so he didn’t appreciate the stops while we were 800 ft above the river. I like situations that feel scary but I know I’m safe, so I was having a good time. There was some annoying slowness that came with the fact that it was a guided tour, but overall was a good experience. Would recommend if you enjoy fear. 

Next, we drove to Babcock State Park, which is very close to the National Park. This park has an iconic mill and most importantly, an Almost Heaven swing. I saw this swing in a youtube video and I wanted so badly to take a picture on it. “Almost Heaven” is a slogan of West Virginia and also the opening line to the song Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver that I had been playing and singing obsessively while we were in West Virginia. I loved the swing. 

The mill was right on a rocky stream with a waterfall just below the mill. With the fall foliage and everything it was so picturesque. 

After seeing the mill, we drove northeast for a couple of hours northeast to NROCKS Outdoor Adventures in Circleville, WV. We stayed overnight there so we could do a cool Via Ferrata. “Via Ferrata” is Italian for “Iron Way” and it’s essentially a rock climbing path with a bunch of rungs set into the rock. We were in a tour group of 14 people who all looked pretty fit and outdoorsy. We had two guides who showed us how to use the equipment and took us along the path. You’re constantly clipping yourself into safety lines as you move so it’s quite safe. I didn’t find it scary at all even though we were up on some big cliffs. We were climbing up and around some cool rock fins. 

Doing anything with a group is a bit annoying because we’re quite nimble and fast, but Felix and I were climbing near the front of the pack so we could just enjoy the views while we waited for the group. 

At one point we crossed over a cool suspension bridge. Felix was nervous about this but found it actually wasn’t so bad. Remember how he’s afraid of heights? What a fun trip I took him on. 

At the final part of the path we got to climb up a sheer cliff to a thin strip of rock where we were very high and had great (and scary) views all around. This Via Ferrata was so fun and I highly recommend it.

Next we drove to Virginia to got to Shenandoah National Park. Shenandoah is a very long, skinny park in the mountains with a scenic parkway, Skyline Drive, running the whole length. It has a ton of overlooks with views of the mountains and Shenandoah Valley. 

We stopped at the visitor center and then did a short hike to a waterfall called Dark Hollow Falls. This is a very popular hike in the park and the waterfall was quite crowded. Felix took this nice picture of me. The waterfall was nice but we didn’t stay too long because of all the people. 

For the full Shenandoah experience, we decided to stay inside the park at the Great Meadows Lodge. After our hike, we checked into our room, which I thought was quite cute. 

There was a sign at the lodge telling us that it was only a 10 minute walk to the summit of the Blackrock trail so we went up there to watch the sunset. 

The next morning we got up early and drove to the trailhead of Old Rag. This is a super popular hike in Shenandoah (you need a permit to do it) and when I was originally planning this trip, I was not going to do it because it’s 9.4 miles long with 2,300 ft of elevation gain. But Felix and I heard from multiple people that this hike was amazing and I saw it frequently pop up on lists of the best hikes in national parks, so we decided to bite the bullet and do it. The first couple miles were rough. They were steep and tiring. 

Finally, we got to the rock scramble, which is the part everyone loves about this hike. The scramble was pretty fun and involved some interesting climbing. This scramble is the bottleneck of the hike so there were a decent amount of other people around for this part. We frequently got stuck behind people, including some old guys (good for them for being able to do this). 

Finally we got to the summit. I thought the views were ok. It was very windy and very high up so taking pictures was spooky. 

We rested for a while on a side that was protected from the wind and ate our lunch. We were really tired when we reached the summit. It was at this point, before I’d even done the hike down, that I decided that I didn’t really like this hike. The fun of the rock scramble did not make up for how hard of a hike it was. And it wasn’t over!

We hiked down the mountain and then along a fire road that completes the loop. I thought the fire road would be boring but I was so relieved to get to hike a relatively flat path for a couple miles. We finished this hike, utterly exhausted, in just under 6 hours. I’m proud of myself for doing it (reminder: it’s 9.4 miles and 2,300 ft of elevation) but I would not do it again. 

We had a lazy evening in our hotel room and got dinner at the restaurant at Big Meadows Lodge, which was quite good. We went to bed very early because we were so tired, so we decided to get up early to watch the sun rise. 

Then we had breakfast at Skyland, which is another lodging/dining area of the park. The food at Shenandoah is good. I was not really wowed by the rest of the park. I think because I grew up in the northeast, I don’t find mountains covered in trees to be super interesting. 

We left Shenandoah and drove to the nearby town of Luray to see Luray Caverns. It’s a cave system with a ton of stalactites and stalagmites and it’s quite cool. 

I really liked this area where there was a thin layer of water creating a cool reflection. 

Luray Caverns is a very popular tourist attraction. We arrived at the same time as a tour bus and multiple buses of school children, so I enjoyed the caves but I also had to put a lot of effort into avoiding groups of noisy children (there’s lots of echo in the caves). 

We had a bit of extra time in our schedule, so we (somewhat ironically) decided to stop at another cave attraction 30 minutes away called Skyline Caverns. Skyline Caverns was much less popular and only offered guided tours of their caves. Our tour group was only 5 people and was blissfully calm. Skyline was not nearly as cool a cave system as Luray. They only had a few stalactites and stalagmites here and there. In some places they tried to dress it up with colorful lights, which kind of worked. 

I enjoyed having a tour guide to tell us about the caverns. But it was also funny because these caves were so much jankier than Luray. Our guide pointed out an area where they stored ladders. Also he sporadically left us alone to go turn off light switches because they’re trying (unsuccessfully) to prevent moss from growing on the cave walls. 

The one really cool thing in this cave was that there was an area that was a room that was a sealed vacuum (no air) when it was discovered, and it has a super rare type of crystal in it that can only grow in a vacuum. It looks like a white sea urchin. 

We finished the tour and drove to Baltimore, the final stop of our trip, to see the Baltimore Aquarium. However, we discovered upon arriving that the aquarium was closed due to a facilities problem. I was very sad. There was nothing else I wanted to see in Baltimore (that was open) so we went to a Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Right before our food arrive, the restaurant lost power and never regained it. We ate in the dark and our waitress had to hand calculate our bill and write down our credit card info so we could pay. This sounds like bad luck but I actually liked that the power went out because it shut off a speaker near us that was playing music too loudly. 

Finally we drove to the airport, where we randomly ran into our friend Kesh who happened to be flying in from Boston. We got home at 1 am and woke up early the next day to go to the Connecticut Ren Faire with some acro friends. This has been a fun week but I am so tired. Thanks for reading!

Bonus pic: Felix on Old Rag