Friday, September 10, 2010

Skyland Resort, Shenandoah National Park, VA


After this post, there are only 2 more sets to publish of my Birthday trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive areas in Virginia from August 5-8. To see any of the other blog posts from this great trip, go to my sidebar, scroll down to labels, and click on Birthday 2010. Believe it or not, there are 12 posts already published in that set, not counting this one.

Today, I'm sharing with you a little more about the place where we spent the night on August 6, Skyland Resort. Skyland is off of the Skyline Drive near Milepost 42. To see the first set of pictures we took from here, click HERE. Above is a picture of the office --where George checked us in that afternoon. Below are more!!!



I want to go inside this building again... This is where we bought our Shenandoah National Park t-shirts, AND is where we ate dinner that evening. Remember the Blackberry Ice Cream Pie I mentioned before????? YUMMMMMM!!!!



Here is the amphitheater at Skyland Resort. They offer all kinds of interesting and historical programs at this little theater.




This is the back side of the restored 1911 cabin, which is called the Massanutten Lodge. In this building, you can read some great history of the resort. The Skyland Resort, much older than the park, played a role in its establishment. It was developed by George Freeman Pollock, a colorful character who induced a group of well-to-do city people to build vacation homes in this area, which is now part of the park. Pollock joined with a group of others who actively promoted the establishment of a national park in the southern Appalachian highlands. This lodge was one of the original buildings.



I love seeing how they used rock to build the homes back then. The Skyland Resort became the core of the new Shenandoah National Park after the National Park Service awarded the concession contract to the Sky-Line Company, Inc. in 1937. They then began to build new facilities. Twelve Skyland structures remain and allow modern visitors to experience life at the turn of the 20th century.




This is one of my favorite spots at Skyland Resort. This is the patio outside of their restaurant. The view is great --and being able to eat dinner either inside the restaurant or on the patio is great as you watch the sun go down in the west.

We loved this resort and recommend it to YOU if you ever go to that area. This is where we also saw deer wandering freely with no fear of all of the people around.

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Anyone having Blogger problem like I am???? Yesterday morning, I kept getting the message, "Service Unavailable"..... I lost lots of comments ---or didn't know whether they were published ---or because I did them OVER, maybe they published several times. I finally gave up!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr.... (Last night, things seemed to be better though, thank goodness!!)

Have a wonderful weekend. We drove to the Smokies again yesterday, and of course took MORE pictures.... Fun Fun!!!!!

See you Monday morning!!!!
Hugs,