Thursday, May 19, 2022

Shenandoah in May

Many months ago, I had booked a camping trip in Shenandoah for the first weekend in May. It's May, I thought! It's Virginia, I thought! Surely it will be warm enough. T tried to warn me, but I blithely pressed forward.

Come the day we are supposed to leave, and the forecast for the weekend is supposed to get as low as 21 degrees. Okay, time to pivot. Luckily we found a cabin available in the park at a reasonable rate. It was cute, dubiously clean, and (most importantly) warm.

But that also changed our hiking plans. We arrived late Friday afternoon in fog, and the next morning was drippy. We wanted to go somewhere that wouldn't involve missing out on a great view. T chose Dark Hollow Falls, and it proved to be the perfect choice.

Dark Hollow & Story of the Forest

We approached it on the Story of the Forest trail, a flat path that was a nice warmup. After crossing Skyline Drive, we began the downhill trek to Dark Hollow Falls. Thanks to several days of rain, the falls were at a nice volume. 

Dark Hollow & Story of the Forest

Our route back was essentially the same, although we took another fork on Story of the Forest. 

Overall mileage was 4.4, with 874 feet of elevation gain.

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