Madeline & I got to go hiking a few weeks ago. This is a view to the east of the Blue Ridge Parkway looking at Rockfish Valley and the Boaz Mountains .

We hiked the 2 1/2 miles from the Parkway to Humpback Rocks (incidentally, this is the first place we went hiking after we moved to Virginia). It amazes me that Madeline is scared of bugs, but she thinks nothing of being a few feet from a hundred foot drop. This is the view west over the Shenandoah Valley to Great North Mountain. It is a long ridge that runs a couple of hundred miles along the western edge of Virginia. Beyond it are the main ridges of the Appalachians.

This is the view to the north of the Blue Ridge Mountains. About five miles from Humpback Rocks is the southern entrance to Shenandoah National Park. I love having a national park in my backyard; I would prefer the Smokies, but Shenandoah will do. The Smokies (GSM) are wilder, the mountains are more jumbled, the sound of running water is everywhere and I have been in areas where you could believe the modern world doesn't exist. There are supposed to be places of solitude in Shenandoah (SNP), but I have not been there yet. I think the biggest problem is Skyline Drive. I understand the desire to travel in comfort and still be able to see the spectacular views, but the road bisects the entire park. In GSM, there is also apaved road that passes through the entire park, but the park is not linear like SNP. The Appalachian trail makes one road crossing in its seventy miles through the Smokies, but it crosses Skyline Drive something like 50 times (I could be way off, but I remember reading that somewhere) in 104 miles. Still, I am very lucky to have easy access to a beautiful park.