Skyline Drive

I'm suffering from allergies just now.  I don't feel real energized, so we've decided to take the lazy way today and drive for our entertainment.

Skyline Drive is 105 miles of possible wildlife viewing:  white-tailed deer, black bear, raccoons, opossum, skunk, birds, red and gray fox, beaver, river otter, mink, weasel, woodchuck, rabbit, squirrel and chipmunks and as many as 200 species of local and migratory birds.  There are overlooks and turnouts and facilities you can stop at, pull out binoculars, and look to your hearts content!  There are waterfalls large and small, too.

Skyline Drive meanders through the peaks of Shenandoah National Park, which  has one of the densest populations of black bears documented within the U.S.  They pretty well stay in the hollows and meadows of the park though.

There is very little traffic on Skyline Drive because it has very little access from adjacent roadways, and it's pretty much a highway to nowhere.  If you are a bicyclist it is absolutely perfect, and if you're a mountain biker you can take the easy, smooth, high-road for awhile and then link back up with the Appalachian Trail for more rustic scenery.

Granpa's thrilled that he's finding Dogwood trees scattered frequently throughout the roadside.  His hometown has a Dogwood celebration and parade every year, but because of all our travels he's missed it for several years in a row.  Up here on the Skyline it is just now warming up enough for the Dogwoods to bloom.  The Dogwood, of course, is both a tree and a flower, and it is the state tree of Virginia, but we love it in Texas, too.

This is the kind of view you get looking left or looking right for mile after mile after mile.  They are absolutely splendid!  In the fall, you have this panorama of greens and yellows and reds in blazing glory, through the blue haze, crowned with wonderful white clouds.

The land acquisition and road construction for Shenandoah National Park and Skyline are stories in themselves.  There is still hard feeling about some of the land-taking, and the Visitor's Centers address this in an open and honest manner.  Be sure you stop and mosey through the history they present.  It's good stuff.

Mary's Rock Tunnel (I like that name!) is maybe one of the most notable features of the road - but it, too, has its controversy.  It took three months to blast through the 600 feet of solid granite rock and 1,000 pounds of dynamite a day.  But was it an engineering necessity?  or just for show?  Regardless, almost before the last roar of dynamite drifted away cars began to pass through this tunnel.