The Blue Ridge Mountains

We had a lovely campsite in the Shenandoah River State Park and on our first day there we decided to visit the Shenandoah Battlefield Trail centred around Front Royal. But it was a bit of a disappointment with really nothing other than plaques marking historical events. So we called it a day and went back to the park.

We were staying near the Blue Ridge Mountains. These are the first major mountains that are reached from the East Coast and were a huge barrier to settlers for over a hundred years. They are a concentric series of ridges stretching out for a hundred miles east to west with the Blue Ridge Mountains the highest and the most Eastern. All along the main ridge for 550 miles runs a road. In the north it is called the Skyline Drive and further south it is called the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We drove up to the Skyline Drive thousands of feet about the Shenandoah Valley on one side, the the Piedmont Plain on the other, and admired the glorious views.

There were lots of places where you could pull over and admire the view. You can see for miles and miles.

There were lots of deer feeding gently at the side of the road and very little traffic – virtually none which was a surprise as 20 million people visit the Skyline Drive and Parkway each year.

We got back and Wendy wanted to go  to the State Park Visitor Centre so she drove up their by herself while I made a cup of tea. When she came back she was all smiling and burst out with “I have just seen 4 black bears”.

She was so thrilled as they are not common to spot during the day at all.

We moved on the next day to 200 yards from the border of Virginia and North Carolina in a town called Galax. It is only a short distance from the Blue Ridge Parkway which slopes gently up from the West to the ridge and then drops precipitously don to the eastern plain. At 5 o'clock that night there was a thunderstorm which did not damage to our campground, but very bad damage just a short distance a way knocking out the power. All the lines men were over by the Virginia Beaches fixing lines there after Hurricane Irene had gone through, so in the end we were without power for 28 hours.

We drove up on to the Blue Ridge Parkway but it was a hazy day as Hurricane Lee in the Gulf of Mexico was already gearing up for an assault up to us. But the views were still stunning and the traffic quiet.

The James River flows right through a cut in the Blue Ridge Mountains and even a long way from the sea, as we, are it is an impressive river. It was canalised all the way up here in the 1800s.

Hurricane Lee is threatening bad weather for us this week and Hurricane Katia is hovering off the coast as well with an unknown track as yet. We continue our way down the Blue Ridge Parkway this week  to its southern most point near Asheville, North Carolina (Hillbilly Country) and explore the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee  (Weather permitting).