Shenandoah Valley

You are probably VERY tired of hearing me talk about my August Birthday trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. This will only be my 14th post from this trip... Yipes!!!! BUT--the good news is that there is only one more post after today...

It was a fabulous trip--and if you are new to my blog, I hope that you will go to my sidebar, scroll down to labels and click on Birthday 2010.

In today's post, we are finally OFF of the mountain (came off of the Skyline Drive near Front Royal, VA) ---and are driving through the fabulous Shenandoah Valley. In the above picture, you can see the beautiful valley ---with the mountains (which we had just been on) in the distance. Below are more pictures of the 'valley'.

In this picture, you can see Skyline Drive (where we were) on the mountain. It felt strange being in the valley--after being on the mountain for two days.

Like we always do, we drove on all of the 'back roads' in the valley--so that we could enjoy seeing the farms and communities along our way. This is a little church (Limeton Community Church) which we saw. I didn't realize until after I took the picture that there was a power line in the picture... Oh Well--it's still a pretty, little church.

The Shenandoah River wanders in an "S" shape throughout the valley in this area. Since I wanted a picture of the river, I tried to take one from the car --while we were driving That didn't work--as you can see. But---out of all of the pictures we took that day, this is the ONLY one we have showing the river.... SO---Close your eyes and just think of this picture as an 'artsy' one!!!! ha

All of my life, I have heard about the beautiful Shenandoah Valley... The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's version of "Shenandoah" has always been a favorite of mine. Dotted throughout this valley were many gorgeous homes and ranches and farms. This is one I'd love to see up close!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the valley because most of you know how much I love seeing little country churches. The location of this one is fabulous I think...

AND--the highest mountain in the background just happens to be near where we had spent the night the night before, Skyland Resort... It was fun looking up and comparing how different things look being down in the valley instead of looking at the view from above.

IF you ever get a chance to visit this area, please do so. I'm sure it is fabulous in the Fall--but like the Smokies, the traffic will be much worse then.

Have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday morning.

Hugs,

Rich Mountain Drive --Part II

UP--UP--UP we went!!! We took a gravel road across Rich Mountain (between Cades Cove and Townsend) on Thursday, September 9th. IF you missed Part I of our journey, click HERE. Today I will share with you some more pictures from our little trip. The picture above shows the road below us ---as we take the switch-backs up that mountain... This is an incredible area!!!! Below are more!

We stopped along the way ---and in this particular area, we took a little hike. We were looking for another overlook --so that we could see more of Cades Cove, but we didn't find one. It was a nice little trail though ---and we enjoyed the hike.

While on the trail, I saw this adorable little purple flower. My Sweetie put on his macro lens --and took this great picture. Isn't this a gorgeous little wildflower?

George can tell you how much I love Fall ---especially RED trees.... Not many trees had turned in the Smokies when we were there, but I got very very excited seeing this gorgeous red leaf.... Fall is truly coming!!!!! Yeah!

The dogwoods were beginning to 'turn' ---so we captured some pictures.

In the last Rich Mountain post, I mentioned that George had to climb up a bank in order to get some pictures of Cades Cove above the trees... There's some old girl watching him climb that bank making sure that he didn't take a tumble. (He stayed on his feet really well!!!)

Like I said, we do want to go back up that mountain when the leaves are off the trees. I think we'll get many more pictures showing Cades Cove then.

I'm sure that some of you bloggers know what these berries are. I have no idea--but I was hoping there would be some little birds around grabbing them. But there were no birds in sight at that time.... Sigh!!!! (UPDATE: Thanks to LINDA from PA for telling me that they are Elderberries!!)

Eeee Yi Yi..... A very pregnant tree!!!!!! ha ha ha..... OR---if not that, it's the biggest WART I've ever seen!!!!! Yipes!

Well--this concludes our little trip across Rich Mountain... I'm sure we will go back --and then you will be the lucky one to see more of our crazy pictures!!! (Tee Hee)

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Some of you may notice that I changed from the pull-down comment menu to the full page one... The pull down form has been causing trouble to people trying to post comments on my blog. Either the menu comes up blank, or you get "Service Unavailable".... I don't want my wonderful commenters to have that kind of problem.

I love the pull-down one ---and hope that Blogger will eventually get it fixed.. I will admit that the pull-down one can get frustrating when I hit the PUBLISH button--and then don't have a clue whether my comment published or not... That's why I do multiple comments at times --being impatient waiting for Blogger to tell me that my comment was published.

Have a great Thursday!!!

Hugs,