Shenandoah National Park

So I learned a valuable lesson yesterday...never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line don't expect to camp at Shenandoah National Park without a reservation!  Every campground and every room in the lodges were completely booked.  The roads were pretty packed, too.  But that didn't stop Ian, Leah, and me from having a great time.

Catherine had a girl's day out planned for Saturday, so I was going to take the kids to Shenandoah National Park to go see the autumn colors and camp.  One out of two wasn't too bad.

Once we found out that the campgrounds were full, we hiked around the Big Meadows area, and then made our way to Old Stony Man to check out the views.

Leah found a little trail that took us to a different overlook that we practically had to ourselves for the whole time we were there.  The kids read their books while I prepared dinner.  Afterwards, the kids did some climbing on the rocks and we did a little exploring.

We were never too far from our gear, and once the light started to get interesting, we went back so I could take some photos.  The photo below has very little saturation boost, as any more starts to look unbelievable - but this is pretty close to how I remember the beautiful, late evening light right before the sun set.

Since the clouds went away at sunset, we stayed until it got dark so I could show the kids how to find the North Pole (they were soooooooo excited to be able to find and see the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, as well as the North Star).  Once it got dark enough, the galactic core of the Milky Way (must be specific, Ian doesn't hesitate to tell me that all the stars we see are in the Milky Way) finally became visible.  Again, both kids were super excited to see the galactic core of the Milky Way, Ian even called for a fist bump!

This is a photo I took of Ian and the galactic core of the Milky Way.  While it doesn't look this way to the naked eye, after 20+ seconds of exposure, it really starts to stand out.  Ian is a bit blurry because of the long exposure - he was lit up with my headlamp for a couple of seconds, and remained in place for the remainder of the exposure.

Once I was finished photographing, we all turned on our headlamps, and hiked the mile or so down to the car.  I am so proud of both kids - we spent 4.5 hours up on Old Stony Man, the temperature dropped from mid/upper 50's to low 40's in the hour around sunset, but there was no complaining (it didn't hurt that I packed extra warm gear just for them).  And they both talked about how cool it was to see all those stars and the arc of the Milky Way across the night sky.  So while we didn't get to camp, we did get to see a fine autumn day and see new things in the night sky.  I'd call that a definite win!

Cheers,

Marc