West Virginia

We fell in love with this scenic state! It was probably helped by our meandering along “scenic roads” as noted in our large paper Road Atlas. There were interesting rock outcroppings…

… expansive rolling hills…

… and fun roads to drive on.

We also started to see the first real color changes of fall.

I had done some research on interesting things to see in the state, and Cranberry Glades looked promising. I’ll let you read the sign explaining it -

We walked along a boardwalk that let us see the extent of the glade…

… as well as a close up look at the flora -

yep… cranberries

The boardwalk also let us get up close and personal with the more liquid areas of the bog -

I just can’t resist reflections…

Just down the road was a series of three waterfalls at the Falls of Hills Creek. The first of the series was “only” 25 ft high, and there was no clear vantage point for a picture. We headed on down to the third fall, which had a drop of 65 ft -

I left the framing for the staircase in the picture to remind me of all of the stairs we had to descend (and then climb back up!) to visit these falls.

The picture above is for those who like the long exposures. The middle waterfall didn’t lend itself to good tripod placement, but it was still quite pretty -

The prime reason we came home through West Virginia was to visit our newest National Park - the New River Gorge.

The bridge you see at the bottom of the picture was the original one used until 1977 when the new bridge was completed.

This is a bridge of superlatives, beginning with the fact that it was the world’s longest steel arch (at 1700 ft) bridge for 26 years, and still is the longest in the US.

We drove on the narrow curvy road on both sides of the river that had been the only way to cross, and the drive alone takes 45 minutes

We took advantage of the fact that we had no time constraints…

… and so we enjoyed the beauty and calm of the river.

Luckily I had snapped the shot above just before the kayak came through. Afterwards, the water never got that still again (no matter how long Steve and I tried waiting it out). Steve, however, did get a nice shot himself -

We then headed onto Grandview for an entirely different vantage point of the area -

This area is renowned for whitewater rafting as well as climbing, but we aren’t into either sport at the moment, so we just admired the large views.

I’ll close with my favorite picture of this 2 week road trip. This was just a random bog at the side of the road -

Virginia

As we continued driving north on the Blue Ridge Parkway and further into VA, there were more cultivated or cleared areas…

… and the clouds were getting heavier (just as we were arriving at our next hike - of course)

We went ahead and started climbing Sharp Top Mountain, getting rained on (gently), and arriving at the top just as the rain clouds pushed on…

… but only on one side of the mountain -

Continued clearing…

… while the lee side had clouds continuing to swirl up the side of the mountain in circular eddies -

This is what we climbed past on our way to and from the peak (3 1/2 miles round trip with over 1200 ft of elevation gain) -

The multiple low rolling hills were neat…

… as was the stone work at tunnels and overpasses -

We got really excited by the first fall colors we saw (it was late Sept. after all) -

As we neared the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway…

… we were seeing the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley -

Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park begins at the point where the Blue Ridge Parkway ends. Nicely, we weren’t finished with rolling hills yet -

An interesting feature was the “rock rivers” on some hills…

An informational sign at one of the overlooks said as the rocks break down due to exposure to elements, they slowly travel downhill, creating “rivers” of rock. This area was called Rocky Top (all you Tennesseans would recognize that term!) -

We hiked a large loop trail that let us visit two waterfalls, and meander along a babbling stream. First was Dark Hollow Falls…

… and then Rose River Falls -

By now, you’ve gotten to know my love of reflections…

… so I’ll share these…

… before ending this tour of the Shenandoah Valley, with its namesake river -

North Carolina

After 3 months of essentially staying home (other than for family visits to MO and trips to see granddaughters), I was really itching for a driving trip. We started by spending nearly a week on the North Carolina coast just north of SC with our 2 yr old granddaughter and her parents. Luckily we were there about 2 weeks before Hurricane Ian hit.

It was her first real visit to a beach and ocean (other than as an infant) and initially she was afraid of the noise of the crashing waves as well as the constantly moving water. So at first we just took long walks on the beach enjoying the lack of crowds at shoulder season -

All too soon, she was entranced with walking at the water’s edge and popping bubbles -

Moving on…

…Steve and I headed diagonally across the state (from the SE corner to the NW corner) to try driving the Blue Ridge Parkway again in better weather. We were here 3 years ago in the early spring and literally got fogged out.

Our first stop was the friendly town of Boone, so we could hike Grandfather Mountain. This is in a state park with several trails as well as a privately owned attraction with a “Mile High Swinging Bridge”. We’ve done enough high swinging bridges in our travels to date, that we took a pass on paying to hike. We hiked just about 8 miles with over 2,200 ft of elevation gained. The name of our trail was “Profile” Trail, and here is the eponymous view:

Along the way we enjoyed a number of flowering plants, including this beauty from the Impatiens family - Pale Touch-me-not:

As we climbed higher, we happened upon a small clearing at the perfect moment…

… the moisture in the air was captured by the sun’s rays. This was so ephemeral that literally less than a minute after I clicked the shutter, there was only brightness from the light, but no definite rays shooting down.

Red fungi among the leaf litter sure caught our attention…

… but then we reached the top of Calloway Peak and thoroughly enjoyed the vistas given to us…

… on this picture-perfect day.

On our way back down, we happily observed fungi colonies…

… along with the numerous shades of green and the quartz veining on this rock -

The next day we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway and pulled over at nearly every overlook to take in the ranks of hills that seemed to stretch forever -

Of course we stopped at Cascade Falls, which was just off the side of the road -

We also saw valleys or hollows where mist was trapped or just rising -

We crossed into southern Virginia as the afternoon wore on, and enjoyed some reflections at a roadside pond…

… as well as at Mabry Mill -

I really should have had Steve hanging out the window and waving goodbye, to signal the end of this post. Ah well, I’m sure you can easily imagine him doing that!