Once again we found ourselves heading to the mountains for some relaxation and fresh air. I always smile when I get to the spot on Interstate 64, about five miles east of Zion’s Crossroads, where you get the first glimpse of the mountains. Once I can see the mountains, I relax and know we are going to have a good weekend.
We went to Massanutten Storybook Trail outside Luray, Virginia. It is a short, relatively flat, very easy to navigate boardwalk and paved trail near the top of the mountain. After walking a quarter-mile, admiring the exciting rock formations and beautiful foliage with butterflies dancing around us, we reached the end of the trail, which opened up to a breathtaking view of the valley below.
After the short hike, we went to Hidden Rocks Cliffs, stopping at Kathy’s Home Cooking Cafe in New Market for lunch. We had a little trouble finding Hidden Rocks Cliffs. It is in George Washington National Forest. Unfortunately, the GPS directions were not that accurate. I ended up passing the Hone Quarry Recreation Area, not realizing that was where we needed to go to get to the trail. It seemed as if we were heading off to the middle of nowhere and, of course, there is no signal in the middle of the Forest, so we turned around and drove back to a spot with data. Once we realized that we needed to go into the Recreation Area, we had no problem finding the trail. It was a beautiful day, great for a hike, albeit a little warm. After hiking for a little over a mile and a half, crossing streams and winding our way through the foliage, we arrived at the cliffs. They were pretty much straight up but looked like they had enough texture for rock climbers to have a great time. We followed the trail to the top of the rocks, where we found a nice view of the trees below. As we followed the trail back out, we veered off to the right to find Hidden Rocks Waterfall. As happens often with smaller waterfalls in the summer, it was only a trickle, but still pretty.
When we got back to the truck, we heard the click-clack of horse hooves on the road. As we were about to pull out a horse and buggy drove by. We ended up seeing two more as we left the area. As we drove to Natural Chimneys Park, where we would be camping for the night, we followed small country roads. We passed a cow pasture with a large pond. It was hot enough that most of the cows were in the water up to their necks. I have seen cows in the water before, but never the entire herd. It made me laugh. As we drew closer to our destination, we passed another farm with a barnyard full of chickens. I have never seen so many chickens in one yard. I never realized that we could be so entertained just by driving around in the country.
We arrived at Natural Chimneys Park with plenty of time to set up camp and explore the chimneys before dark. It is not a big park, but the rock formations known as Natural Chimneys are impressive. The remains of an actual chimney (from a house that burned down) are within sight of the natural rock formations. I found it interesting to see the drawings from a travel guide from the early days of our country. As we explored, we found a cave, but could not get too far into it before it became too cramped. Cave crickets covered the ceiling and roof of the cave, a little creepy, but nothing I couldn’t tolerate.
Our original intent was to eat breakfast in camp and then explore the chimneys in the morning. As we had arrived in camp ahead of schedule and did our exploring we decided to have breakfast on the road and add an extra waterfall to our itinerary. On our way to breakfast, we saw a cow with a calf so new that he was still on wobbly legs. Unfortunately, there was not a safe spot to stop to take a picture. We stopped at Kathy’s Restaurant in Staunton for breakfast. And yes, it is sheer coincidence that we happened to eat at two places named Kathy’s back-to-back. After breakfast, we headed for a waterfall along the Blue Ridge Parkway, not too far from our next destination. The road we were on very much reminded us of the road to Crabtree Falls. When we reached a railroad crossing, we found that a train had stopped on the tracks where we needed to cross. We waited for a while and then decided that the train was not moving anytime soon. We found another way around on the map, so we went around the stopped cars and were on our way again. As we followed the road, the GPS told us to turn right. After a few miles, we realized that we were being re-routed back to where we had just come from. We decided to ditch the waterfall and continue to Humpback Rocks.
That little change in plans ended up working in our favor. After we parked at Humpback Rocks, while we were getting ourselves together for the hike, a deer wandered into the parking lot. Had we not taken that detour and arrived at the time that we did, we would have missed the close encounter with the beautiful creature. After that wonderful prelude to our hike, we started the ascent to Humpback Rocks. The beginning of the trail was definitely an uphill climb. We took several breaks, some for photos and some for catching our breath. It felt as if we were playing leapfrog with another group as we worked our way up the side of the mountain. As we drew closer to the top, the trail became very steep and very rocky. We had to pay close attention to our footing.
We had to do some rock scrambling when we reached the top. Humpback Rocks has a spectacular 360-degree view of the valleys below that seems to stretch out forever. There are two stacks of rocks next to each other. I watched as a girl bravely climbed up the side of one stack with her father right behind her. I wasn’t that brave, so climbed up to the top of the other stack, which wasn’t too difficult. From the top, we could see a storm in the distance that looked rather menacing, so we decided it was time to head back down the mountain. Our descent was much quicker than the trip up, slowed only by a sweet little chipmunk who posed for a photo. Just as we made it to the car, the rain started pouring down. If we had not had that earlier detour we would have gotten very wet.
Somehow, as we drove, we managed to skirt the edge of the storm, avoiding driving in the rain. We could see the storm clouds and the sheets of rain coming down over the mountain but stayed just outside the tempest. When we arrived at The Barbecue Exchange for dinner I thought it would be nice to eat at a table on the front patio, but after we got our food it was raining sideways out there. It was a quick one though and by the time we finished eating the only sign of the storm was the wet ground.
Cost of trip – camping $28.43, 2 tanks of gas approximately $70, firewood $20.
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