On the second day our our Shenandoah getaway, we arose in our cabin and after some pastries for breakfast set off directly for Dark Hollow Falls Trail. This was described to us as both a trail “everyone did” but also “for a reason,” so we wanted to see it. We had hoped to beat the crowds and we only sort of did. We were not the first ones to have to park on the grass but our parking spot looked downright reasonable compared to some of the placements we saw after our return up the hill. This was another comfortable hike, and not too long, though that not-too-longness is mostly straight down a hill to the waterfall and straight back up. The weather we had this weekend was absolutely perfect and as we hiked different trails in the park we were impressed by how different they could be, even when they weren’t too far from each other. We could have gone much farther past the waterfall as the trail seemed to just continue dropping on down, but at a reasonable stopping place we turned around and admired the falls. They were indeed very pretty. I remember them not being too big but upon reviewing the photos I can see some very small-looking people for scale. We didn’t do any splashing around or anything but we did wait in line to take the appropriate photo and then turned around for the march back on uphill.

Emerging into the daylight we went the short distance to the Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center. That was a very interesting visitor center indeed. We watched one of the videos they had going on in the theater, this one all about the biodiversity of the park, which is pretty biodiverse. I am having trouble backing up this claim, but I remember them saying the Shenandoah had the largest variety of salamanders anywhere, including the very rare and very narrowly distributed Shenandoah Salamander. But the permanent displays in the visitor center were mostly about the creation of the park. For various parochial reasons the Virginia political establishment was in favor of the park, and the only real obstacle were the thousand at least families living on the planned park grounds. Park promoters said the park was empty, or at least that the people living there were at best backward and at worst actively harmful. But these people had homes and lives and shops and were removed against their better judgement. The next day, as we were driving out of the park, we passed cozy family stores and orchards and farms which I imagine would have been what the parkland would look like today if the people hadn’t been booted. It reflected on the values of conservation vs. people’s livelihoods and came down a little more on the side of conservation, but not without some trepidation, which made for a thoughtful display. Given all that, normally I would say we should erase the name of a racist like Harry F. Byrd from the park, but maybe his name is in fact the one most apt to remember the story of the park’s creation.

At any rate we had a hike-appropriate lunch of burgers at the wayside next door and departed on what would be our last hike, down to Rapidan Camp. This was Herbert Hoover’s weekend retreat and all you have to say to my wife is “presidential site” and she wants to go. This was the longest hike we went on (it still wasn’t super long), and was a great walk through the woods and over three streams. Fording the streams was my super amazing wife’s biggest trepidation before embarking on the hike, but the crossings were very convenient with large stepping stones over the first two, and a specifically hewn log over the third just to make it exciting. Eventually you get to the site of Rapidan Camp and I was disappointed to discover you could only go into the buildings on a separate ranger program, but still it was a nice area to see and they had some informative signs. The most interesting thing we learned though was probably that Herbert’s wife’s name was Lou Henry. Cute! My biggest takeaway is that it must be nice to be president and have the Marines build you a weekend retreat, and funnier still that Roosevelt took one look at the place and decided to bin it and get his own place built.

Near the top of the hike tragedy struck and the sole of my super amazing wife’s hiking boot just fell plum off. After only 9 years of use! They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. But we were near the end of the trail and didn’t have any must-do hikes left, so it wasn’t too big of a loss. Taking it as a sign we head back to the cabin and settled in to relax. For dinner I had brought a pan to heat up some water to make pasta which we would then add store-bought sauce to. This dinner would have been better if my improvised system to heat the water hadn’t failed, causing me to have to put the pan directly on the fire to get anything done, blackening it, and more importantly all while our cabin neighbors were preparing an effective and elaborate feast for dinner. But I did feed us eventually.

Our big plan for the evening was to go to a stargazing event. For this we left just as the lightning bugs were really getting going, and they were indeed really going. I have seen lightning bugs in my time but I don’t recall ever seeing so many, sparkling everywhere and all around us. At the ranger-led stargazing event we shifted our focus first to admiring Jupiter and its Galilean moons through a telescope. Then the ranger walked us through the constellations and we had a great time. My super amazing wife likes big-city living mostly, except for the lack of stars. We didn’t stick around quite long enough to see the milky way that evening as it was getting chilly up there on the mountaintop, but still, to have some time and darkness to admire the night sky was quite the treat.

At that point we head back to the cabin for our final night. The next morning was leisurely and without the equipment to hike we had nothing much else to do than enjoy a final drive in the park and then head on out to the next adventure.