Shenandoah National Park, Virginia (Day 1): Rose River Waterfalls & Hawksbill Peak
After three long years of living 800 miles apart, Ryan and I finally tied the knot this summer! Unfortunately, the one thing we didn’t account for in our meticulous wedding planning was a global pandemic. Our original honeymoon (like our original wedding) had to be delayed until next year, since Spain wouldn’t let us in even if we tried (and I don’t blame them). We had a wedding-party-and-immediate-family-only ceremony in Red River Gorge, one of our favorite places on earth, then spent a couple of days at a cabin there. Our initial thought was to treat those few days as our honeymoon, but when we got back home, we decided to book a spontaneous honeymoon in one of the few places we felt safe traveling to: a national park.
Shenandoah National Park is in Virginia, encompassing some of the iconic Blue Ridge Mountain range, and this was our first time visiting. The park is long and skinny, Skyline Drive skirting the ridges of the mountains as it winds upwards, providing beautiful vistas along the drive. The park’s history is marked by struggle between the government of Virginia and those who had built their lives on this land, with forced evictions devastating families. Once the park was established in 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps not only helped restore the land and build the park’s infrastructure, but they also burned cabins of former residents to prevent their return.
Ryan and I drove into Big Meadows Lodge, which is in the southern part of the park, on an overcast day. The mountains were blue, hazy, and beautiful. Our room was rustic (aka the bathroom door didn’t shut and there was no A/C). It wasn’t our resort in Mallorca, but the Lodge restaurant had a surprising variety of vegan dinner options and we were somewhere that wasn’t our house, so it still felt like a win.
Rose River Trail (3.5 mi loop)
The first trail we embarked on was the Rose River loop. The first section of the trail meandered through ferns, down beside the creek, and ended at Dark Hollow Falls. The waterfall drops 70 feet over a series of cascading boulders. We went fairly early in the morning (around 9 am), so there were only a couple of people near us while we got to admire this stunning waterfall (as compared to when we looped back around noon, and it was crowded enough that we needed to pull out our masks).
The reason we chose to do the looped Rose River hike rather than the shorter Dark Hollow Falls trail was because of the promise of countless waterfalls along the river. It did not disappoint! We saw gorgeous waterfalls all along the trail, and the dense, lush green canopy kept us cool throughout the hike. Probably my favorite waterfall was the last one (before you have to trek upwards much longer than I would have liked), which felt like a little tropical paradise.
On our way back, Ryan and I took a shortcut down the unpaved road, which turned out to be one of the scariest decisions of our trip. This part of the hike was completely unpopulated, and we’d just seen a deer bound over the road, clearly in a hurry, to which I said, “I hope that deer isn’t running from a bear.” What do you know, not two minutes later, Ryan and I both froze as we saw a bear cub scamper away from the trail. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of the mama bear ambushing us around every corner for the rest of the way back, so we kept the bear spray at the ready, but we ended up safely finishing our hike without another close encounter.
Big Meadow
After our hike, we decided to do a picnic lunch at the Big Meadow, which, aptly named, is a big meadow across from the visitor’s center. Apparently, in early morning, bears can be spotted around the periphery of the meadow, but we just enjoyed the sunshine, the sound of bees buzzing, and the beautiful feeling of no COVID anxiety, as not another soul was in sight.
Hawksbill Loop (2.9 miles)
Because Ryan and I are no wimps, we chose the highest summit in Shenandoah for our final hike of the day. Hawksbill peak is 4,051 feet, and the trail intersects with the Appalachian trail (which crosses through the park in several areas). We’re not the biggest fans of hiking uphill, and this trail is essentially split into two sections: one way is much longer and a more gradual ascent/descent with many switchbacks, and the other is a very steep ascent/descent with a 860-foot elevation gain in maybe a mile. We thought we were going the gradual way up, but at the point at which we’d been going uphill for thirty minutes straight, we realized our mistake.
Still, it was a blessing in disguise. The whole way up, we’d been listening to a thunderstorm brewing (and I mean cracks of lightning that sounded a hundred yards away), and just when we’d been able to see the view from the peak, the rain starting pouring. If we hadn’t taken the shorter way up, we would’ve been caught in the deluge, but instead, we were able to wait out the worst of the rain in one of the shelters at the summit.
At some point on the descent, the rain broke, and we were left with this eerie-looking mist. These woods were definitely either haunted or magical.
All in all, our first day in Shenandoah was awesome, but we were definitely ready for a nap and some of the Lodge’s blackberry cobbler and ice cream by the time we made it back.
Tune back in next week for the second part of our Shenandoah trip: Stony Man Peak, Mary’s Rock, & Lewis Falls.