Three years ago I was discussing photography with a fellow photographer, pictured below. We were discussing places for good photography in the DC-Baltimore vicinity and he mentioned Shenandoah Valley. He also showed me some photos of deer he had gotten there. He was pretty impressed with how close he got to the deer (although – spoiler – I eventually got closer). I was impressed with the deer photos and his description of Shenandoah Valley. I resolved to visit it.
The guy who told me about Shenandoah Valley
I told my wife and she seemed amenable to the idea. The only problem was that it took over two hours to get there. And, when I looked up information about the National Park, it turns out that it was a 105 mile drive in which drivers are limited to 35 miles per hour. We realized that while it was technically doable in one day, we would probably be miserable at the end of the day. So we decided we had to wait until we could plan a trip where we’d spend the night in a hotel there. Fast forward to 2009 and we resolved to go for our anniversary. Then some other things came up around that time (lots of travel) and we decided to go in the fall. Somewhere along the line we mentioned it to my in-laws and they asked to join us. So over Columbus Day holiday we made a visit to Shenandoah National Park, my third visit to a US National Park. Following is a photo essay with a selection of my photos from my Shenandoah National Valley Trip set on flickr. All the above-ground images are GPS tagged so click through to the flickr page if you want to see where the photo was taken. Once on the page, click on the “map” link on the right near the bottom (around where it says the date the photo was taken).
Going South on I-95 near Calverton, MD Danielle was the driver so I could concentrate on photography during the trip.
Our hotel outside Front Royal, VAOne of the motels in Front Royal Proper. Many of them looked as though they had been constructed in the 1930s when the park was opened
The weather made shooting out the window a necessity, although this sometimes produced less than stellar results.
This was the first deer we saw in the park. We only saw it because the car in front of us stopped so we looked to see what they were looking at. It was a bit of a surprise and I tried my best to get the deer, but it still came out blurry. I've left this photo in the photo essay because for a long time we thought this was the only deer we'd see in the park and I was so annoyed I was unable to catch a good, clear photo of a deer in Shenandoah. Little did we know how wrong we would be. Still, seeing the deer put the trip off on a positive note. We were a little dismayed that the foliage would be peaking in the following week, so seeing the wildlife lifted our spirits. I was unable to contain my excitement after this and I know it really helped me enjoy the trip.
When I read, on the park's website, that the speed limit was 35 MPH, I pictured a leisurely drive in the park. But as I saw the trees passing by while I looked for deer and bears, I came to feel that perhaps 35 MPH was a little too fast to enjoy nature. The Ken Burns documentary mentioned people passing through the parks so quickly they can't enjoy its true purpose – connecting with nature. I felt that way at times during this visit. If I ever make it out to Shenandoah again, I would like to partake in some hikes and some tours with the park rangers. We stopped at the ranger station to find out the hours for the restaurants in the middle of the park.
This bear made my day. All I wanted to see at the park was a bear. I also wanted to see deer, but I'd seen those before. Never had I seen a bear in the wild. We were extremely lucky to see this bear. If you believe in a god that meddles in human affairs, it was certainly God who caused us to be there right at that moment. We would have never spotted the bear had the two cars in front of us not been stopped in a section of the park that did not have a place to pull over. I looked to see what they were looking at and I thought I saw a bear. I ran out of the car, crossed the street, and saw the bear far away. I ran back and grabbed my 400D which had the 55-200mm lens attached. I popped off a few shots of the bear, but this was the only one at ISO 400 to come out non-blurry. So, glad I decided to chimp, I realized this and upped the ISO to 1600 to get the rest of the bear shots in this series. I jumped up and down like a child and was so excited about the bear, I'm sure I made a fool of myself. I spent the rest of the trip elated despite the poor weather. I also spent the rest of the trip looking for another bear. But there were no others to be found near Skyline Drive.
With every click of my shutter, the deer would look up and so every other shot was a good one.
And so we left the park after about eight hours.After Skyline Drive we had three choices of caverns to visit. We decided to go to Luray Caverns because it seemed to be the one no one in our party had yet been to. According to wikipedia, we were four of this year's 500,000 expected visitors.
I only included this shot (taken while driving around Front Royal) for my brother.
With the sun making its descent, we headed back to the hotel.
Shenandoah GPS Track; Not as pretty as the google one, but guaranteed to be here as long as this blog is up.
2 responses to “Shenandoah National Park”
Nice shots!
Thanks!