On Saturday, Mary and I took a drive up to Skyline Drive, likely for the last time this season. Most of the facilities are now closed for the winter in SNP, although the drive is still accesible and most of the hiking trails will remain open. Our Saturday destination was Big Meadows - a wayside up there which is a very interesting geological feature - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Meadows (note the article does not include anything about the geology of the meadow!).
They have an excellent old lodge there in the tradition of famous national park lodges - not as glamorous as some of the big western parks maybe but still nice digs. Also, cabins, campgrounds, a visitor center, and a little restaraunt. It is near some favorite hikes including the Hawksbill summit and Dark Hollow Falls.
We can see the facilities as we drive up to the cabin, so I have often wanted to take a look back down into the valley and see what I could make out. Here is my lame motocam shot from the balcony of the lodge (it was closed, so we were walking around the outside checking it out).Two other items of note - the temperature up on the mountain was 26 degrees - it was nearly 50 in the valley; and we passed two deer on the way to the lodge, one a six pointer.
A second image for this post - a Google Earth map showing the relationship of the two lodges, Skyland and Big Meadows, to Hawksbill Cabin. Since these peaks of the Blue Ridge are all over 3,000, they loom over the valley, especially where we are, tucked up close to the Park (the cabin is about 1.5 miles from the Park border). From this image, the orientation of my photo is viewing towards the Northeast; looking through a ravine in the mountainside towards the farms between Stanley and Luray. The cabin is obscured by the mountainside in the foreground.
No comments:
Post a Comment