Lunch at Elkwallow

Blue Ridge Mountains: 27^th September

Huge vistas over Shenandoah Valley

SkylineDrive follows the heart of The Blue Ridge Mountains and is a core route through Shenandoah National Park.  It has plenty of viewpoints, some side access roads (with fascinating names – Rockfish Gap and Swift Run Gap), a number of wayside stops (we lunched at Elkwallow) and plenty of things to do if hiking, meeting wildlife nose-to-nose, or photography is your bent.  We were warned to watch for bears. Yup, grizzlies (or maybe it was just photos of grizzlies).  The bears were too busy to bother with us, though the Magpies did spot a deer or two.  Sadly, fall foliage was not out on display (mid to late October, I’m told by Park Wardens but check out the link above) but the scenery over Shenandoah Valley and across the park was superb.

Oh look, I've just seen a deer!

St Mary's Rock Tunnel (1932)

Photo opportunity stops gave our chauffeur plenty of breaks; still, it was a long run across to Fredericksburg, then down along the Rappahannock River to Deltaville.  It was rather pleasant to finally be back on board enjoying our peaceful marina life.  I think we all slept well after our time away setting quite the pace as tourists-on-the-go.

The only fall colour we found...

Even Park Facilities were nicely situated

Well, kinda sorta!  Land touring really takes your mind off things like weather.  We noted that in our absence, Hurricane’s Karen and Lorenzo were spinning just off the coast.  Karen, after threatening the Caribbean, had lost a little puff, weakening to Tropical Storm intensity.  Lorenzo had other ideas and was busy building muscle to Cat 5, with an eye on the Azores.  Our guests were just so pleased we had managed to arrange for a little memento or two of their visit to east-coast US; aptly named if you know the Magpies.  Gotta love September!

Fall colours were about (some artfully arranged), everywhere else though