...Thursday because he knew it was going to be a gorgeous day and I wanted to go to our favorite place....
Can you believe how clear it was?
We decided to hike up Stony Man Mountain...can you see his brow, nose and jutting chin always watching the western world? Imagine all the lovely sunsets he has seen!
We made our way to the trail head greeted by this sea of ferns...they go on forever!
We encountered a Yellow Birch splitting a huge hunk of greenstone in half!
As we made our way almost to the top the trees start getting shorter and more gnarly, growth stunted from altitude and drying winds.
The view from Stony Man's brow is amazing!
You can see why he is called Stony Man as he sits up there guarding the town of Luray and the Shenandoah Valley...lucky guy!
He has some beautiful plants growing on his brow.
Triskets and peanut butter never tasted better. We enjoyed the view and the sun all by ourselves for over half an hour before another admiring hiker joined us.
This is where we came from...you can just see two little pieces of Skyline Drive there on the right....one where we stopped to take the first photo of Stony Man.
This is where we went after saying our goodbyes and thank yous to the Old Man.
We didn't see her at first, she was further up the drive.
She kept coming closer and closer grubbing around and the crazy people were all out of their cars, leaving their doors open, trying to get a picture in awe of the sight....
...we just stayed in the Bronco, one... because we were stuck between all these cars with no drivers, two....we were surrounded by people with cameras in their faces but three....it didn't matter because the bear was only 15 feet away stopped right by our vehicle!
She turned around to go back to the tree stump a few feet away...
....really playing for the cameras by knocking over small logs and rocks to get to the goodies. The reason we know the bear was a female is because as she walked back into the woods...
...we could see two other little black critters....
...watching momma and hoping for their share of the bounty!
Now that is a face more than just a mother could love!:)
We decided to hike up Stony Man Mountain...can you see his brow, nose and jutting chin always watching the western world? Imagine all the lovely sunsets he has seen!
We made our way to the trail head greeted by this sea of ferns...they go on forever!
We encountered a Yellow Birch splitting a huge hunk of greenstone in half!
As we made our way almost to the top the trees start getting shorter and more gnarly, growth stunted from altitude and drying winds.
The view from Stony Man's brow is amazing!
You can see why he is called Stony Man as he sits up there guarding the town of Luray and the Shenandoah Valley...lucky guy!
He has some beautiful plants growing on his brow.
Triskets and peanut butter never tasted better. We enjoyed the view and the sun all by ourselves for over half an hour before another admiring hiker joined us.
This is where we came from...you can just see two little pieces of Skyline Drive there on the right....one where we stopped to take the first photo of Stony Man.
This is where we went after saying our goodbyes and thank yous to the Old Man.We headed further south and was greeted by a traffic jam...wish I had taken a photo of all the crazy people....crazy because they saw this.....
We didn't see her at first, she was further up the drive.
She kept coming closer and closer grubbing around and the crazy people were all out of their cars, leaving their doors open, trying to get a picture in awe of the sight....
...we just stayed in the Bronco, one... because we were stuck between all these cars with no drivers, two....we were surrounded by people with cameras in their faces but three....it didn't matter because the bear was only 15 feet away stopped right by our vehicle!
She turned around to go back to the tree stump a few feet away...
....really playing for the cameras by knocking over small logs and rocks to get to the goodies. The reason we know the bear was a female is because as she walked back into the woods...
...we could see two other little black critters....
...watching momma and hoping for their share of the bounty!
Now that is a face more than just a mother could love!:)Thank you dear hubby for taking the day off...it certainly nice to be self-employed!
Once home we snuggled with our critter...after he snuggle with his!:)
Once home we snuggled with our critter...after he snuggle with his!:)~d
Gorgeous pics Dee! DH is from WV and NC and I'm from PA and that is what I miss most living here in Florida. Lucky girl you. Happy 4th xoxo, Pam
ReplyDeleteThe bear is so exciting! - Cindy
ReplyDeleteLOVE it!! We used to live in Harrisonburg and went to Skyline ALL the time. Bought season passes every year. We have seen bears up there so often - but it's a treat no matter when you see one. I always see a bear or two on the Dark Water Falls trial - actually on the fire road coming back up!! (seriously, three times out of three!) What a wonderful day. We just got back from floating on tubes down the New River.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful day. :D Thanks so much for sharing the beautiful and fun pictures with us.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful in your neck of the woods!
ReplyDeleteAnd that bear he wouldn't dare bother you in a Bronco. Those things are a classic. My husband misses his ever once in awhile. Ours was a Bronco II.
Have a great 4th!
Patti
Oh my goodness - Lovely pictures and gorgeous bear. I can't beleive people GET OUT OF THEIR THEIR cars to take photos or am I just a wimp!
ReplyDeleteOh, wow! That is some view indeed! And what a precious wee cub. Bless his wee heart - but I thought bears were dangerous! You'd get out of your car why?!?!?
ReplyDeleteOh lovely! And seeing a momma bear with babies! What a fantastic day off :-) (When we drove around the Rockies, we always knew when wildlife was running around near the road - the cars would all stop, and you'd be like it's an ELK! There's thousands of them grazing 10 miles up the road...)
ReplyDeletehappy Fourth to you :-)
Wow what a great day out, and the bonus of seeing the bear. I was lucky enough to see a bear in the wild when we went to visit our Son and Daughter-in-law who live in Vancouver. Unfortunately I did not have the camera handy, and was not in a traffic jam
ReplyDeleteBeautiful day and views, and those bears! Thanks for sharing, very jealous. I'd be one of the crazy people getting mauled by momma bear because I wanted to play :)
ReplyDelete