spirobulldog

We arrived at Reagan Airport on a Thursday evening on an uneventful flight.
(Connecting flight was in Memphis, which has several good local BBQ places in the airport) We stopped in Fair Lakes, a few miles outside of DC, at a very nice super large Whole Foods store for a few supplies en route to Shenandoah. We made it to Lewis Mountain Cabins by 9:30pm. The cabin seemed just fine (more on this later).

Friday
We were up and at em in the morning and ready to go after eating oatmeal in our cabin(I had my backpacking stove for heating up water). We decided to hike the Cedar Run/White Oak Canyon Loop-- a 9 mile hike with 2500 feet elevation gain. This hike featured 7 or 8 waterfalls/cascades. It was a bit more difficult than what we had imagined. To be honest, we didn’t think much of the hike at all. There are far better waterfalls and hikes right in our backyard(Ozarks/Arkansas). We were surprised by how few people that were at Lewis Campground and on the trails, considering it was Memorial Day weekend. We did see a 5 foot long black snake near the end of the trail. I wish I had a video of my wife attempting to run past it.

We had a nice meal at Big Meadows Lodge. I had the mushroom, tomatoes, and southern cheese grits. Wife had roasted turkey , stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry dressing. My daughter had the rainbow trout. All of these were decent and certainly acceptable for national park food.

We then went back to our cabin at Lewis Mountain. This is when things got interesting. The camp store/rental office had already closed at 6pm. There were bugs everywhere in our room. I’m talking thousands of them. We were so tired; we just took our baths and laughed about it. We then realized that they had installed a light in the attic to attract the bugs into the ceiling at night. Sure enough, by morning they were all gone. There seemed to be two kinds of bugs. One of them looked like termites. I decided not to make a fuss about it and never did mention it to anyone. My wife and daughter were fairly irritated at me. Just today, we got a call/apology from Aramark(the concessionaire) . They noticed the problem after we left and said they had closed that cabin due to an “extreme and severe bug situation” LOL I have stayed at many primitive historic national parks lodges/cabins, but this one was a doozy as far as “roughing it” and the condition of the room. The room would be filled with bugs each day by mid-day. Crawling all over the walls, but not getting into our food at all(hopefully). By morning they would be gone. They didn’t seem to be on the beds either. We left the lights off as much as possible as this seemed to really stir them up. Without the bugs, this would have been a decent nice two bedroom cabin.

Saturday
We drove to Charlottesville and visited Monticello, Montpelier, and Ashlawn( President Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe homes). Monticello was good, but was not a good value to me. The tour was short and you get to see just the bottom floor of the home. You can pay more and see the top floor, but it wasn’t offered the weekend we were there. The grounds were very nice. The café at Monticello was a bit better than what I expected. Ashlawn is a very simple house and not much to see, but was interesting. Montpelier turned out to be better than I had anticipated. Again, very nice grounds there too. At both Montpelier and Ashlawn, very little seems to be known as to what the original structure actually looked like. So, they probably aren’t as “original” as you might expect. I think the plantation homes in Natchez and New Orleans are far better than these and less than half the price to tour them. Plus, they offer a whole lot more information. The tour at Monticello was very short and very crowded(20 to a group is too many). We ate at Mellow Mushroom(pizza) in the evening near the University of Virginia and found it to be very good.

Sunday
We had breakfast at Big Meadows Wayside, which is an interesting place in its own right.
We had originally planned on hiking Old Rag hike, but after the strenuous hike on Cedar Run/White Oak, we just didn’t have it in us for another serious hike. So, we decided to try Hawksbill Summit. It was a nice hike 3 miler and just what we looking for. Nice views from the highest point in the park. We stopped on our way back at Pinnacles Picnic area. This was supposed to be a good spot for a picnic. Why they call it Pinnacles, I’m not sure. Not anything that I typically think of as a pinnacle. Memorial Day crowds seemed to arrive on this day. The picnic area was swarming with people and flying bugs. We were swatting so many flies and gnats that we ended up eating in our car. We then headed for Luray Caverns. Now, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but when we arrived, there were literally a thousand people waiting in line to get in. The entrance price is ridiculous($72 for three people). The cave itself is amazingly decorated. I have visited most of the major caves in the US(Carlsbad, Mammoth, Oregon Cave, Timpanogos, etc). I have never seen this many people in a cave nor a cave this decorated. It seemed that most of the crowd was India decent. I felt somewhat like I was at Disneyland. They even were selling drinks and other items as we stood in line. We finished the evening with a meal @ Skyland Lodge. I would for sure stay at Skyland if I were to return. It seemed newer and far superior to Big Meadows and Lewis Mountain. The menus at Skyland and Big Meadows are nearly identical. Blackberry Ice Cream Pie might be the best thing on the menu.


Monday
Drive back towards DC airport. We have been to Washington a couple of times, but still was fun to just drive around the monuments. We ate at a place called Chopt Salads before heading to the airport, which was really good.


Overall impressions- Nice and much greener than what I had imagined. Perhaps the mist/fog keeps things wet enough here to stay a bit nicer/greener than other places. This is my 30th national park to visit. I would probably rank it somewhere around 26 or 27 on my favorites list of the ones I have visited. Certainly glad we did it and enjoyed it, but it isn’t one of those that I would go back to. We did see many deer and a bear(maybe for 3 seconds), before it scampered off. Also a couple of wild turkeys.

Monticello, Montpelier, and Ashlawn were great, but I think other plantation homes in the south are nicer and far less expensive. I did find the tree at Montpelier(a gift from Lafayette 250 years ago) to be very cool thing to see.
The mirror lake in Luray Caverns is the best I’ve ever seen(above or below ground).


I wish I would have taken a picture of the bugs inside the cabin.
Here is a link to my photos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsWVo

emalloy

Sounds like a nice trip Spiro. We were on a short portion of Skyline Drive the week before and saw a nice black bear digging bugs out of a fallen tree about 10 feet from the road. It then flipped over a big rock for whatever critters were edible under it and then walked behind our car to the woods on the other side of the car.

Loved the bugs, your wife and daughter are real troopers.

Are they still doing the boat ride in the dark on the lake in Luray Caverns? That was very neat years ago.

eenusa

Your lodging experience at Skyland and Big Meadow is directly tied into whether your room is in one of the renovated buildings or not Your wife is a better person than me; no way would I have stayed in that cabin with all those bugs.

spirobulldog

I really don't know why we didn't complain. We just got there late that first night and didn't pay attention. The next night the office was closed and we were tired. We expect a few bugs, mouse, squirrel, etc--as that is pretty typical in probably half of our experiences in the parks. But, this was over the top. My wife was pretty freaked out about the whole thing. She refuses to tent camp with me, but after this she has reconsidered. So, it might actually work out better in the long run for me. I'm thinking the next trip is going to have to be more of an upscale city type trip to make it even for my national park primitive trips. When we walked into the dining room at Skyland, my wife said, "now this is really nice" LOL.

No boat rides in the cave these days that I saw. I really couldn't believe the amount of people there. The line moved really fast considering how long it was. The guy selling tickets told me it was one of the most decorated caves in the world. I didn't believe until I saw a bit of it myself.

A couple of years ago my parents watched a mom and 3 cubs for 30 minutes or so. They got some pretty good video of them in a tree eating.

Kwoo

Enjoyed reading your report & looking at your photos. We haven't been to Luray Caverns yet, but we did stay at Big Meadow Lodge about 10 years ago & really enjoyed our stay there. No problem with bugs, luckily!! Have been to Monticello several times but not the other Presidents' homes.

schlegal1

Nice report though I am sorry you didn't enjoy my area of the country more. I hope folks were friendly to you. We were out of town Memorial Day weekend but I heard it was brutally hot, thus all the bugs--yuck.

I know what you are saying about Monticello. I think it's a great stop but agree they skimp on info.

emolloy, I didn't know Luray caverns ever had a boat ride on a lake? There is one here, in Sweetwater, TN, though: http://thelostsea.com/

I think the stalac"pipe" organ in Luray is really, really cool!

schlegal1

I really like your pic of the poppies in the foreground and Monticello in the background!

spirobulldog

Lol. Probably the only two photos I didn't take were those. I have to give my daughter credit for those. I am making one of those photo albums and I think it is the one I am going to use for the cover.

We did enjoy the area and are glad we went. Just probably not one of those places we would go back again for a good while.

Traveler_A

I went to Luray Caverns yesterday and have been once before. I have *never* seen as many people in the cave in one spot like your picture. That's crazy! Maybe over the holiday weekend they just try and get as many people through there as they can.

spirobulldog

Did you notice the picture of the line. It was about 1/4 mile long. It was past the bathrooms at the entrance of the park. I asked and they said the expect somewhere around 9,000-12,000 people that day. That's a lot of cash, not counting t shirts, ice cream and soda sales. Suprisingly, the line moved a lot faster than I thought it might. The line wasn't nearly as long when we exited the cave.

I usually know when to expect at zoo atmosphere(disney, fireworks at Niagra Falls, major events at DC, etc). I was not expecting anything like what we saw. I wasn't expect such a pretty cave either. Although, the entire cave really smelled as a result of to many people in an enclosed place. Also the cave was so loud, that really I had to strain to hear the organ and it was the main reason I had gone.

Shenandoah Park wasn't really crowded at all. Never even waited to eat at any of the lodges. Perhaps, just an unusual circumstance at Luray. IDK.

ronkala

Spiro, the swatting at gnats and bugs? That is the stste salute.

polly229

Well, checked out your photos and it was fun to be reminded of how spectacular Luray is. (Especially since I'm not willing to go there again and brave the crowds. Weird that the cave was so packed but the park was okay.) Disappointing that you had a less than ideal experience. I'm a VA native and my brother is still there - married to a woman whose older sister is named Luray because she was the first child born after her parents were married in the cave. (I always thought that was pretty weird. But then, Gwyneth Paltrow named her kid Apple - only one weird name example of many these days. But I'm thinking Luray was a pretty strange name in 1940.)

If Shenandoah wasn't one of your favorite parks, better skip Congaree. I kinda knew better than to make it a destination, but we were on an airplane hiatus and decided to do some driving trips. Spent about 2 or 3 hrs. at Congaree and that was plenty. Maybe because we had already been to several swamps already - wildlife refuges in SC - and were getting to the "seen one, seen 'em all" point.

I take it from your photos that you had cell service somewhere on a mountain after Monticello. One of our stranger experiences was standing in the Kilauea caldera when my husband's cell phone rang. Five minutes later our daughter got a call. And this was in '00. (But 3 miles out of the park at our B&B they had not a single bar.) At the time DH was still working and joined at the hip to his phone. I was constantly trying to find places without cell service (national parks) or where it was too expensive to keep the phone on all the time (Europe, South American, etc.). Thought for sure VNP would be such a place.

spirobulldog

Polly,

I'll still try to make it to Congaree at some point. I've been to 30 of them now and going to North Cascades for 1 days and Mount Rainier for 3 days this next weekend. I'm 45, so hopefully have a chance to see maybe all of them. I know I would need a few other things to do along the way there. I have been to Alaska but haven't been to Hawaii. We are considering going to Kauai next year(even though there are no NP there). Mainly I've done most of them in the west. I haven't done Glacier, but have reservations there for next summer.

polly229

The two NPs in SD made 30 for us, too. But we're way older than you are, so we have to hurry. Once we do RMNP on a CO loop next month, we'll have done almost all the parks on our A List except maybe the 5 in AK we haven't gotten to and probably won't. And probably not American Samoa either. The CO trip will put us at 33 NPs and a couple more NMs. Then I don't know what. There's not a trip like the CO Plateau one last fall where we got to 5 new NPs, 3 "reruns", and some NMs (and some great UT state parks) in under 3 weeks.

Closest to it would be part of what you're doing next weekend. We've been to Olympic (me twice) but briefly and would like to spent more time. Been around Rainier but not in the NP. So I'm thinking about a Pacific NW trip, close to 3 wks., with Olympic, Rainier, Cascades, then a drive-by of Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake (would have to do this in Aug. or Sept. for that), and maybe Lassen since I like fire things (hence my love for YS). Think everything else we haven't done would be separate trips for each park and I'll have to dig to find out what else to do.

If you go to Kauai, which is absolutely lovely (and teeming with chickens), try to get to the Big Island. That's my favorite both because of Volcanos (that fire thing again) but I also like snorkeling and the Kona coast has two areas where turtles haul out on the beach and chomp algae in the swimming/snorkeling area. They'll come within arms length if they think you're chomping algae too and since they approach you, not vice versa, the Fish and Game or whoever don't seem to worry about possible contact like they do on the turtle watch boats.

Glacier is our second fav park after YS. Might go back there instead of a new one sometime.

Have fun in WA and good luck with the whales. Assume you're hoping for orca. Never seen them up close (except Sea World), just grays and humpbacks. Saw them from San Juan Island when we were there about 3 yrs. ago but they were far, far - closer to Vancouver Is. (And when we were on Van. Is. we didn't see any at all, only a humpback.)

cd

Polly, re: "and the Kona coast has two areas where turtles haul out on the beach and chomp algae in the swimming/snorkeling area."
We will be here for a month, what are the names of these two areas please?

cd

Spiro, thanks for an interesting report. You surely have a great wife to live with those bugs! What are your top 5 National Parks?

polly229

The beach with the breakwater - which is calmer - is beside the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort, assuming that's still the name. Might be Kahuluu Beach Park. Everybody in Kona will know it. Just be careful because there are algae rocks not only in the water but out of it and are treacherous to walk on. A false step and you will just hate going into salt water for a couple of days or so. Trust me.

The other place is at South Point (Ka Lea) on a black sand beach. It was rough both times we were there and I tried walking out on the (underwater) rocks once to where I could see some turtles but almost had another slippery rock accident because of the surf. Since then I have read that there is a nicer place beside next to where we were - Leleiwi Beach Park where turtles also go and there are supposedly protected inlets in the middle with good snorkeling and turtles.

It's been about 3 years since I was there and I don't know if the spots are the same. Turtles started hauling out on the Big Island about 15 years ago, I think, but it could change - or they could be going other places now, too. I do know that I've snorkeled with way more turtles there in an hour than on an expensive boat trip out of Maui.

(Sorry, Spiro. Kinda hijacked here - Shenandoah is a long way from Hawaii.)

spirobulldog

Polly,
I live in Oklahoma, btw.

We haven't been to the SD parks. Have been to all of them in California, with the exception of Channel Islands. Loved Lassen and Crater Lake, btw. Have been to most of the NP's only once. I like to spend 2-4 days normally in each one and try to really experience them rather than just check them off. Like rafting the GC, try to do most of what I would consider the must do hikes at them.


Hmm Top 5
Yosemite
Yellowstone
Arches-Love canyoneering there
Kenai Fjords
Zion

Parks that I like the most that I wasn't for sure about before going--Lassen and Death Valley.

Most wow or shock and awe upon first viewing-
Grand Canyon
Crater Lake
Sequoia Giant trees

polly229

We didn't start to travel much except for piggy-backing vacation on the back of business trips through the years. (Some were pretty good destinations - San Juan, Australia, London, Amsterdam for instance, on top of frequent trips to NYC, more occasional trips to Seattle, New Orleans, Philadelphia and such.) Then the kids left home and the dogs died, so we started trying to travel more. Until recently - last 6 yrs. or so - most NPs were side bars to other trips when we were going to be in the area anyway. Acadia for one day on the way back from Nova Scotia to Boston, Olympic because we had 3 days after a business trip in Seattle and went to Port Townsend, Port Angeles, etc. Volcano was an afterthought on our first trip to Hawaii - 24 hrs. on the Big Island (but we liked it enough we've been back twice since for a couple of days each time). DH used to do a convention in Vegas in April every year (for 25 years) and after the kids were gone, I started flying out at the end and we'd take a long weekend at Grand Canyon, Sedona, Death Valley, etc. The last few years before he retired, when he had more vacation, we started taking a week or more afterwards - once a two week loop with Sequoia, Yosemite, eastern side of the Sierras, back through Death Valley to Vegas. So there are places we've been only for a day or two but we've been there 3 or more times like Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Gt. Smoky Mt., Shenandoah, Everglades.


Y'stone was our first "destination" park - 7 days there and 2 days in the Tetons. Loved Y'stone so much we've been back twice since and always for 6 days or more. But some of them that I suspect I won't like quite as much - Congaree, for instance - are still done as drive-bys that are part of another trip. Otherwise, I plan on at least 2 days, 3 if possible. (Except for only one day at Great Sand Dunes next month.) But the Colorado Plateau trip included some one day stops - a "rerun" trip to the Petrified Forest, a "rerun" to Bryce and an afternoon at the Zion Kolob Canyon section on the way back to Vegas for our flight home. Like to go back to Arches myself, preferably when a little cooler and we would be inclined to walk more. Wish we had had more time and more money when we were younger for the NPs because now we're not up for very strenuous hikes, maybe 4-5 mi. rt and if we can see more stuff on 3 2mi. rts, we'll do that instead of a longer one. Don't have what it takes to hike down GC now, just long walks along the rim.

Spiro, have you been to Big Bend?

cd

Thanks Polly

Spiro, we've been to all your top 5 except Arches. At lease I think we've been to Kenai Fjords. We took a 26 Glacier Cruise out of Seward and I think that was it....tell me if I'm wrong.