Cass Scenic Railroad--Part II

The Views from the train as we traveled up that mountain were fantastic. The mountain in the distance is the Skyline Drive area in VIRGINIA. (Are you over there, GINNY?)

 I hope you did not miss my last post talking about us taking a train ride at Cass, West VA on June 24, 2014, while we enjoyed celebrating our anniversary in that area.  We took a ride WAY UP the mountain to Bald Knob on an open-air train, powered by an old steam locomotive.  It was fantastic.  If you DID miss that post,  be sure to read it first in order to get all of the history and information about that fabulous ride and its area...  AND--be sure and listen to the short video near the beginning of that post..  Click HERE for that post.

Today,  I'll share with you what we did and saw during that adventure... Hope you enjoy our ride.  The first several photos are of some gorgeous mountain views that we experienced from the train as we traveled up that mountain.  Be sure to click on the photos for enlargements.

This was where we stopped along the way,  the Whittaker Station.  (There is another  train one can take --if you want a shorter ride--to Whittaker and back.)  We did stop at Whittaker since they had a concession stand there, some historical items and of course,  restrooms.

It was a marvelous day to be on that train.  The views were all breath-taking.

Here's another view of the gorgeous West VA mountains--taken from the train.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the mountains and mountain views.

The higher we got in elevation while on the train,  the more RED SPRUCE trees we saw.  The Spruce trees 'take over' in the higher elevations... The dead-looking trees beside the dark Red Spruce are/were Hemlocks.  As has happened in many areas of our country,  the hemlocks  are being destroyed by the Wooly Adelgid insects... So sad!  Hope nothing ever damages the beautiful Spruce trees here.

We saw LOTS of WILDFLOWERS along our way... So pretty!!!

The ferns and those dense mountains were just fantastic... There were so many GREEN forests all around!  I love seeing the woods knowing that in most of these areas,  they are enjoyed totally by all of the wildlife and critters--and not by humans!  That's what we love about this area of West Virginia... Tourism has not ruined it...

We made it to the TOP ---to Bald Knob,  where at over 4800 feet in elevation,  the air was much cooler!!!  We had more beautiful views from here --and this is where most of us had our lunch that day.

Here is the view from the overlook (photo of it in my last post from here) of the mountains all around us.. What fabulous views!!!

Oh My Goodness.... Click on this one for sure to see that farm located deep within these mountains.... I used my zoom lens to get this photo.  IF I were much younger,  I'd love to live somewhere deep within the mountains!!! Talk about privacy!  Wow!

Here is that farm and others within the mountains --taken with my regular lens... These last three photos were taken from the overlook at Bald Knob.

Of course,  the deer were at Bald Knob --as we started leaving the area.  He was begging and they tell the folks not to feed the deer.  BUT--many DID.... He was 'licking his chops' (See his tongue?)   --after getting some goodies from one of the train passengers. 

Heading back down the mountain,  I loved this beautiful photo of all of the layers of mountains in the distance.

Here's one more photo as we headed down that mountain of the 'views from the train'...

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of what we enjoyed while being on that train.... Although I loved the wildflowers and the critters and the deep woods,  my favorite (as you can tell by my many photos) was all of the fantastic views we had of the surrounding mountains.  On such a beautiful summer day in West VA,  what could ever be any better than this?????

Have a wonderful Monday ---and I'll be back on Thursday.

Hugs,

Emoticons