Month: May 2018

Little Stony Man Trail

trail-us-virginia-little-stony-man-loop-at-map-14130528-1484298224-300x250-1

Little Stony Man Trail is a 3.4 mile loop located in Shenandoah National Park. The parking area can be found at mile 39.1 off Skyline Drive. Some of the most beautiful sights can be seen from Little Stony Man Cliffs. We were nervous with our kids as the cliffs are a straight drop down hundreds of feet. We would have spent more time at the cliffs if it weren’t necessary the whole time keeping the kids from getting too close. The rest of the trail is heavily wooded.

IMG_6188

The temperature really dropped our last few days in Virginia. We wore our winter coats and hats not only at the summit but also all the way up. It actually snowed the following day (flurries) but we were determined to eek out  the last few days of our vacation.

This was our last hike in Shenandoah but certainly won’t be our last. It’s a short 6 hour drive for us and I’d love to come back especially in warmer weather.

You can see more of our hike in the video below. Stay tuned as warmer weather approaches and more adventures begin. Thanks for stopping by.

Shenandoah River Rafting

Canoe, Kayak, Tubing, Camp the Shenandoah River in Luray, VA | Shenandoah River Outfitters

With all the hiking we’ve been doing, I thought it’d be nice to work our arms a little bit as well by rafting down The Shenandoah River. We booked a three hour trip from site 16 to site 19 as seen on the map below. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive taking on the class 2 rapids with the kids but all worked out well. The current takes you down river easily so you hardly have to paddle. The hardest part was keeping the raft heading straight down river (why are we going around in circles?). With a little practice, Linda and I were able to work as bowman and sternman before we hit the rapids.
th
We did great on the rapids taking on a little bit of water which we pulled over on a beach and dumped out. This would have been great during the warmer months for swimming but the water temps were still a little chilly in April. We left spider beach and the kids couldn’t stop raving about the rapids all the way down to the take out. We’re raising a bunch of adrenaline junkies.
Check out the video above as I tried to capture our trip down the river. Sorry, no rapids. My hands were full and I feared I might drop my camera to the bottom of the river. We’ll take you on our last hike of Easter Break next. Thanks for stopping by.

Luray Caverns

img_6077.jpgWho can stay in Luray without visiting Luray Caverns? The campground we were staying at was only maybe ten minutes from the caverns but Ryan and Ava still managed to fall asleep in the Jeep on the way over. They were probably exhausted from jumping on the bounce pillows the entire day before. Linda and I decided to let them sleep a bit so I took Sarah to the adventure park beforehand. we were fitted for harnesses and went on up promptly. There were three levels, one just for little kids and the next two levels were age appropriate for Sarah only I had to be with her. I’m glad to say we conquered the second level and a bit of the third level although a bit apprehensively.  After the initial fear Sarah really tackled most of the ropes effectively. I’m not proud of getting kicked out of the adventure park for using my iPhone to record Sarah but we did get to spend about an hour climbing and balancing before going back to the the parking lot to round everybody up to see the caverns.

Luray Caverns covers 64 acres and was discovered in 1878. The inside temperature is a constant 54 degrees so I would recommend sweatshirts. It’s also a great rainy day activity if you don’t plan on doing the adventure park because all of the museums and shops on property are inside and the caverns themselves are entirely underground. The kids were mildly amused but would have preferred there wasn’t a “no touch” rule for many of the rock formations. Linda thought parts of it looked fake but I think that it’s one of the wonders of the world and you just have to believe. It’s estimated the caverns were formed millions of years ago but were just made a Federal Landmark in 1978.

Be sure to check out the caverns and adventure park in the video below. Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned as we’ll take you on the Shenandoah River next.