Trip to Luray, End of May 2002
This recounts the tale of my trip to the vicinity of Luray Virginia.
I went with Kris, Marie, and Jason. The trip was fairly uneventful,
and by Saturday evening we made it to Skyline Drive
We then went to the Matthew's Arm Campground in
Shenadoah National Park. After promising to keep our food away from the
bear, we went and set up camp.
My camera was acting up this trip, so the pictures are ugly and fuzzy, but
here you can see a very crazy view of the girl's tent. The guy's tent was of
course much better but somehow cropped out of the picture.
Marie and Jason bravely attempted to get a fire going, despite the fact that
the only wood we could find was soaking wet.
And then, success! I'd like to think I did more than kibitz. The fire was
enough to cook by, but very smoky and was always destroying my eyes whenever
I tried to tend to it.
In this picture the tiny figures at the top of the ridge are space aliens
come to kidnap us... or else it's Marie and Kris trying to find more
firewood before nightfall, I forget which.
That night it was super-super-freezing and I was wearing all the clothes I
brought for the trip. Luckily my sleepingbag was warm.
The next morning we were awoken by the natural sounds of the neighboring
party's car-alarm going off at 7am. We woke soon after, packed up, and
hiked off in search of a mythical waterfall.
This is Overall Falls, or at least I think that was the name.
Anyway we had to go take a closer look. I took the easy but long way
through the trees. Marie took the more direct
let-me-climb-down-a-super-sheer-cliff-to-my-death approach.
The falls were quite nice.
Here you can see Marie, Kris, and Jason standing still so quickly they are
blurred with excitement! Or maybe I need to be more careful w my poor camera.
Of course the hike had been downhill, so we had to climb back up to the top
to get to the car.
We had to then be sure to stop at some overlooks. For some reason they look
squished in this one...
We then got horribly lost trying to find a church thanks to a forgotten
"business" on the directions, but the kind people at Luray United Methodist
Church were very accomodating, and many good hymns were sung.
We ate lunch by a sunny stream in Luray, Then it was off to
Luray Caverns despite the best attempts
of the VA Highway department to confuse me with suddenly ending lanes and
confusing signage.
The caverns were beautiful, but soon it was time to go. And thus the fun
trip to Luray was ended, but not before braving the horrors that are the
Capital beltway.
Back to Pictures Page