After our stay at Shenandoah River State Park, we headed down the Skyline Drive.  We drove the entire thing from Front Royal to Waynesboro.  It was still pretty early in the morning when we got on, so the mountains were still misty.  There was a chill in the air, so we had to wear our jackets, which was a nice change from the hot and humid weather we were accustomed.  It was so beautiful.  The views were out of this world amazing!  I believe I read there are 75 overlooks for viewing, and I think we must have stopped at at least 50 of them.

 

We stopped at the visitor's center and purchased a book on hiking that listed all of the short hikes down the Drive.  Our first stop was Hogback Trail.  It was a about a mile hike up and back that looped around to the Drive.  The beginning of the trail was covered in ferns.

 

There were beautiful rock formations all along the trail. 

 

 

This was the view at the top of one of the rock formations overlooking the Skyline Drive. 

Then it was back in the car, through the tunnel, and on to the next hiking trail…

…with a few overlook stops along the way, of course.

Our afternoon hike was Bearfence Rock Scramble.  In the hiking book it was described as a fun hike for the kids that had them scrambling over the rocks on hands, knees, and feet at times.  Sounded cool! 

 

It was awesome!

 

The kids loved the rock climb, but I think they enjoyed the junk food they don't normally get just as much.

This is where the trail got a little too dicey for the kids, but I had to see what was at the top while the kids had a snack.   I reconnected with the rock climbing daredevil in me.  It's been too long since I did this!  I had forgotten how much fun it is. 

 

 

Before we even knew it, it was dinnertime!  We stopped at South River Park to do a little campfire cooking, and let the kids run around.  I have to admit, I was surprised they still had so much running left in them after the hiking.

 

I bet you didn't know I could cook on a campfire!  Yep!  When hubby and I were first married we lived on a farm (uggg!).  Our house had a wood-burning stove for heat, and in the winter when the power sometimes went out for a week or two at a time because of snow storms, I had to cook on the wood stove.  I've actually always loved to cook, and at one point thought about opening a bakery.  Shocking, I know.

 

Here is our dinner guest in the park getting a drink of water from the fountain.

We hit the drive again in search of the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

We chased the sunset from overlook to overlook.  We parked and watched as the sunset turned to blaze orange, the sun disappeared, and the moon took over its watch.  Words cannot describe how spectacular it was to have this as the finish to a truly amazing trip.