Celebrating 20 years on Skyline Drive

I am so impatient! :0) I promised myself that I wouldn't post this on my blog until I had the film photos back....but yet, here I am! Posting away...
Anyway, my sweet hubby and I celebrated our 20 year anniversary last week by taking a little getaway to Skyline Drive, VA. We love the mountains, and the outdoors, so this was a trip that both of us really enjoyed!

One of the reasons I wanted to wait is that the pictures of us together are on the film, not the digital....but I will at least post some scenery pictures and pics of my sweetie now.

We started at the Front Royal end (Northern-most end) of the drive, and worked our way South where it joins the Blue Ridge Parkway. The picture above is taken at the first stop on the Drive.

My hubby and I both agreed that the Northern most end was so beautiful! We picked a wonderful time to go as it was not crowded, and was so relaxing!

We met and saw people from all over! Germany, California, Oregon, Texas, S. Carolina, Florida, and lots more... We are fortunate though as we can get there in 3 1/2 hrs, so it is not a lengthy drive for us.

One of the neat things along the drive besides the scenery, was the wildlife! There was everything from little chipmunks and skunks, to bears! (Unfortunately my bear pics are on the film camera) It was thrilling for us to see the bears, and on Sat. morning, we even saw a mother bear with THREE cubs!

Mostly though, there are deer! We saw them everywhere from the parkway, to the campground, and in the woods while hiking.

As you can see here, the ones in the campground were totally oblivious to us! :0) They loved eating the acorns that had fallen from the oak trees . The one pictured above is a buck!

The first day we were there we visited Luray Caverns, of course the pics are on film and will have to wait...but that was such a neat trip! Maybe I'll create a separate post just for Luray.

We got up early the second morning and took a hike down to see the Dark Hollow Falls pictured above. They were pretty, but the park ranger said that they are suffering a drought there, and that the water level was way down. The water from this fall comes from a spring, so it was able to keep functioning. It was about a 3 mile hike total-and coming back was kind of steep. It was about all this out of shape lady could muster! :0)

The picture below is taken along the trail to get to the falls.

But, it was soooo worth it. It was very pretty!

At the southern-most end where the Skyline Drive ends, the Blue Ridge Parkway begins. The picture above is taken from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We did hop on there for a few miles-just to make a quick visit-and it was lovely as well. We had actually been on the Blue Ridge previously, but on the other end (Meadows of Dan, Mabry Mill areas).

While there, we visited this pioneer farm-complete with live chickens- and did a self-guided tour.

We plan to go back in the spring because our children want to go and see it all, so maybe the falls will be bursting with water by then!? And maybe there will be little speckled fawns....yep, I'm definitely ready to go back!