May 30, 31, 2017
We spent two lovely days at Loft Mountain Campground in the Shenandoah National Park. The Appalachian Trail circles the campground along the edge of the mountain where the views are spectacular. On Tuesday we hiked to Doyles River Falls, which includes three beautiful falls. This is a popular trail, so it is wide. A 3.2 mile round trip, it is pretty steep coming back up. On Wednesday afternoon, we hiked with Ed Brownfield to Jones River Falls. Again, this is a series of falls, and with all the rains we have had, quite beautiful. The hike back up wasn’t nearly as bad.
We topped it off with dinner at Blue Mountain Brewery with Roberta Brownfield joining us. Ed was the designated driver for the 45 minute trip back to the campground. We saw one bear quickly crossing the road. Our wildlife viewing for two days was quite good. We saw an abundance of deer, many of which were in the campground, reminding me of Whistler’s Campground in Jasper, BC, where Elk wander throughout the campground. We saw one bear eating right beside the road driving in. He didn’t like the diesel sound, so we couldn’t stop and get a picture, but as soon as we edged past, he came right back out to continue eating. The car behind us stopped for some good pictures. We also saw a young turkey right next to the road, and there were lots of birds in the campground. I hate snakes, but they were no bother. We saw four, a cute little ring neck in the trail, a dead rattlesnake next to the trail, a garter snake, killed by a lawn mower in the campsite and one unidentified crossing the road. The treat was a bobcat slowly crossing the road as we drove down to dinner. That is only the third one I have ever seen, and it was so nice to give us a good look. I saw lots if bobcat scat walking the AT, but never saw one.
Ed is a frequent visitor to this campground, and I see why. We’ll be back!