Day 15 - Headed Home

●●● The Drive
Total miles:  380
Hours Driving: 5 and a half hours
State Count: 9 - Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia

After a wonderful trip to Westmoreland, we left the park on Thursday morning. We made much better time returning to DC, as there was a lot less traffic.  We even arrived in time to join Dave for lunch!  

We then repeated our recovery day from the prior week... washing laundry, repacking the car and picking up groceries.

We had originally intended to spend this evening at Shenandoah National Park, but Dave suggested we might appreciate a night in the hotel room to recover.

Early Friday morning, with a car once again packed full of gear, we started our journey home!

●●● Shenandoah National Park - Skyline Drive

After a short drive, we arrived about mid-way on the Skyline Drive.  We immediately had to pull off to check out the scenery.   

I'm sure the Shenandoahs are gorgeous in the fall, but I have to say, summer is absolutely beautiful as well. Flowers grew abundantly along the roadside, with the gorgeous treed mountains in the background!

We spent the next hour slowly driving along this beautiful route, stopping often for pictures.  One of the stops was filled with milkweed flowers and butterflies.  I think we counted over 9 varieties of butterfly, and there must have been hundreds total.

●●● Shenandoah National Park - Dark Hollow Trail

A little before lunch we arrived at Big Meadows Visitor Center and Campground. This was the campground we had originally intended to spend the night. 

Across the street was the start of Dark Hollows Trail.  Dark Hallows trail is a short one mile hike.

While we might have enjoyed a longer hike, given the miles we had to travel that day, we opted for the direct route to the falls!


The trail meanders downward beside a tinkling little brook.

And then crossed the ledge into a stunning water fall!

After our hike, we grabbed a quick picnic lunch at the camp headquarters.  

The Appalachian trail runs right through the Shenandoah Mountains, and crosses the Big Spring Campground/

While eating lunch, we did meet one hiker.  He had started all the way down south in May, had been hiking for months, and was planning on finishing up in Harper's Ferry. Pretty cool!



●●● New River Gorge Bridge

I had planned a path along the New River Gorge Bridge, which was only a half hour out of our way. We were driving some tiny, windy back roads of West Virginia to get there. 

Unfortunately, due to lack of cell service, we thought we were going the wrong way and had gone miles out of our way.  It was only when we finally got back into cell service range that we realized it really wasn't.

We, unfortunately, did not make it to the bridge in time to visit the Visitor Center, but we did get a chance to walk down and get a good view.

New River Gorge Bridge used to be the world's longest steel single span arch, but is now the fourth largest.  It stands 876 feet above the water and is the third highest bridge in the United States.

We had originally planned on spending the night near the bridge, and taking a "Bridge Walk" on the 2 foot wide steel catwalk that is below the bridge.  But due to timing, and wanting to get some more miles under our belt, we changed plans and continued driving on!

●●● Robert Newlon Airpark and Campground


After we changed plans about spending the night in Fayetteville, we drove another two hours down the road.  We started looking for a campground, and Dave found this place that sounded interesting.  The place is built on a mini airfield, complete with skydivers on Saturday morning.

We waited around on Saturday morning, but had to hit the road before the skydivers took off!