Stop 2, Babcock State Park, WV

Pink Ladyslipper

Wild Azalea

Rhododendron

 We had a beautiful drive through western Virginia today.  We basically drove parallel to I 81 for most of the day.  It was sunny and the traffic was light.  We stopped for lunch near the Dragon's Back in Tazewell, VA.  There were lots of motorcycles in the area, presumably in the area to ride the winding road that goes up the Dragon's Back.

Grave Creek Grist Mill

The  State Park where we are camped is near the New River Gorge, one of our newest National Parks.  It's pretty remote.  I Googled "store near me" on Google Maps and the first 5 or 6 results were Dollar Stores.

The campground is separated from the park although there is a connection by trail.  Apparently this was done in part to allow them to close the park.  We'll visit tomorrow.  The web photos look nice.  There is a grist mill and other water features.

We're hoping for a dark sky, stars and good sleeping with forecast lows in the 40s.

We hiked from our campground to the park headquarters on a paved, forest service road.  It was a beautiful walk through a mature, eastern hardwood forest.  I told Frances, that I know that the desert southwest, especially the Saguaro cactus around Tucson bring about an inner joy for her, it is these dense, lush eastern forests that do it for me.  The smells, the sounds, the colors just melt the tension away. 

We returned from the park headquarters via the Narrow Gauge trail, which is apparently an abandoned rail line.  We found old railroad ties, and a constant littering of coal along the path.  It followed a stream with frequent waterfalls, and culminated with our discovery of the Pink Ladyslipper blooming just before we rejoined the paved road that we departed on.  

Arriving at our campsite, the very lethargic park service crew was still playing at putting a new roof on the bath house 200 feet from out campsite.  A large apartment complex is going up near out house in Huntsville, and we hear the nail guns installing roofing shingles all day long.  These guys sort of remind us of being home, except they can't seem to manage to work than about 20 minutes at a time.  A professional roofing crew would have finished this job during the 4 hours of our 9 mile hike.  These guys are about 25% complete.

We were visited last night by Becky from Asheville, NC.  She and her companion, Robert have a NuCamp T@B, which is a larger teardrop than our Silver Shadow.  She had to share with us how much she loved her teardrop.  She asked us if we were going to the NuCamp owners rally in 3 weeks.  We told her that we were not, but we promised to drop by and visit with her and Robert before we left.

Today we are having lunch in Fayetteville, WV.  It's a bit like a nano-Asheville.  After lunch we are doing a walking tour of the New River Gorge Bridge.  Apparently there is a catwalk below the deck of the bridge where we will be walking.  Photos to come.

The bridge walk was fun.  The bridge trusses have a beautiful, geometric symmetry and the views of the river aren't bad either.