Our campsite was super awesome, and we had it set-up in no time at all! After we had unloaded the car and we got everything all set-up, we ventured out to go for a hike! We went on one of the more popular hikes there which is to a place called Stony Man, and it had some truly amazing views. It was a nice introduction to Shenandoah! After our hike, we stopped by the Visitor's Center, and then headed back to camp! We were EXHAUSTED, so we were very happy to just relax by the campfire, cook our dinner, and get to bed pretty early.
Our tent!
The view from Stony Man!
Another Stony Man view...
Another view from the hike...
And another view from the hike...
Our campfire cooking our dinner!
The next morning we slept in a little bit (by camping standards), and then got ready to go start our hikes! Our first hike was to Jones Run Falls, and it was super easy and beautiful on the way to the falls. But, the hike to the falls was all downhill, so I was already thinking about how hard the hike back would be! We made it to the falls, enjoyed spending some time at the falls, and then started our hike back up. Well, this is when things got interesting. You see, Shenandoah National Park is known for having a very large population of black bears... and we hadn't seen any yet. Well, that changed on our hike back from Jones Run Falls. After we started our hike back we saw a bear about 150 feet away, through a bunch of trees. So, we were super excited! It was a very safe distance away, and it was amazing. We stood there watching it for a little bit, and then we kept walking. After we were walking a bit, I was looking down at the ground when all of a sudden I felt Kevin grab my shoulder really hard, so I knew something was super wrong. I looked up at his face and he had an urgent look on his face and when I looked where he was looking, I saw a black bear WAY too close to us. It was maybe 50 feet away, and we could quite clearly see it and it could quite clearly see us. So then we started walking really fast, while jingling our bear bells (we were prepared - we had bear bells AND bear spray as a very last resort if we were about to get mauled or something) and we started talking quite loudly. Then, within two minutes, ANOTHER bear went running across the trail in front of us, and it was only about 20 feet away from us. WAY TOO CLOSE!! This one was adorable because it was super young and small, but we didn't have time to enjoy its cuteness because we were like, "Where is its mother?" so we paused to see if its mom was going to come running across the trail too. We couldn't see its mom anywhere, so then we started booking it CRAZY fast up the trail! I was having a really hard time because of the steep uphill climb and the high elevation (plus I think I might just be REALLY out of shape... possibly... dang it...) so we were having to stop so I could catch my breath whenever we were at an open area that seemed safe. I'm happy to say that we made it back to our car, and only saw those 3 bears.
The falls!
The falls again.
I did not take any pictures of the bears (of course), but I took this picture of a sign at the Visitor's Center!
After that heart-pumping hike, we found an easier (and we were hoping less bear-filled...) hike that had spectacular views! That was a truly beautiful hike, and a great one to end the day with.
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