Speaker 1: If you're looking for the perfect place to chase waterfalls
Speaker 1: and run from black bears, then capital off with the
Speaker 1: naple martini at a makeshift Speak easy. Shenandoah National Park
Speaker 1: is the place just for you. That's right. This place
Speaker 1: has it all. Bountiful forests, foggy mountaintops, scenic drives, intimidating wildlife,
Speaker 1: and quaint Town's filled with chatty cab drivers and friendly
Speaker 1: restaurant service. And it's also got a lot of history too.
Speaker 1: We're excited to share all of our findings about this
Speaker 1: wonderful Virginia park. Hi, I'm Matt and then Brad. This
Speaker 1: is the park Landia Podcast from my Heart Radio. We
Speaker 1: packed up our stuff in Chicago and moved into an
Speaker 1: r V and now we're shopping the country full time
Speaker 1: with our dog fin exploring America's national parks. They we're
Speaker 1: talking about Shenandoah in Virginia. So, for some unfair reason,
Speaker 1: a vast majority of national park in the US are
Speaker 1: clustered out west, with only a few scattered along the
Speaker 1: East coast. And as someone who grew up on the
Speaker 1: East Coast, I am personally offended by this. But at
Speaker 1: least you have gems like Shannon Doah to brag about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I do not even want to talk though,
Speaker 1: because like most of the parks I visited growing up,
Speaker 1: we're out west, or like all of them were out west,
Speaker 1: even though I grew up like four hours from Acadius.
Speaker 1: So I'm basically a total hypocrite complaining about this. And
Speaker 1: in this case, I I've never been to Shenandoah when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, so my gripeing is kind of unfounded.
Speaker 1: But as an adult now, like why there there should
Speaker 1: be more? Of the East Coast is beautiful and Shenandoah
Speaker 1: perfectly exemplifies that. Yeah. And when you and I went
Speaker 1: in the spring, it was the first time for both
Speaker 1: of us, and it really just blew us away. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was I wasn't expecting to see this like rich
Speaker 1: Green Mountain, with these beautiful valleys and the in betweens
Speaker 1: and the dotted with clouds and patches from this misty fog.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just looked like something out of a movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or this hauntingly beautiful dream, especially in the morning. Not
Speaker 1: a sound cliche or anything, but shenan Doah is the
Speaker 1: kind of place that really defies cliches. It's just that good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was exciting to visit a national park together that
Speaker 1: neither of us have experienced before or knew much about.
Speaker 1: You know, we were going in completely fresh and open minded. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true, like total blank slate. And we were at
Speaker 1: this time fresh off a few days in Richmond, which
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite cities ever. And we were
Speaker 1: there because you were selling syrup in an event. Um,
Speaker 1: do you want to talk a little bit about that
Speaker 1: and then we can gush about Richmond maybe because I
Speaker 1: can't resist. Yeah, No, I mean I really love those events. Um.
Speaker 1: That one was the Bizarre Bizarre, And love the name yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's spelt two different ways, just because it's that fancy.
Speaker 1: They're so clever and so um. I really enjoyed going
Speaker 1: to that event and selling Burns Maplewood Farm maple syrup,
Speaker 1: and and it was just a really great time going
Speaker 1: into Virginia. And I remember buying tickets for that baseball
Speaker 1: game for the Long Day. I remember that was just
Speaker 1: horrific because I was like, Oh, I'm so excited, we're
Speaker 1: going Opening Day and then it's like, not, those are
Speaker 1: for tomorrow. Yeah, and then yeah, that sucked. But we
Speaker 1: wound up going to see the pet Cemetery movie at
Speaker 1: this great movie theater nearby, and the movie theater had
Speaker 1: a bar with hefty wine pores, so it probably worked
Speaker 1: out for the best, to be honest. But Richmond is
Speaker 1: so yeah, great, and it's a great place to spend
Speaker 1: a few days visiting the wonderful restaurants there, neighborhoods, and
Speaker 1: they have hiking trails in the city and around the
Speaker 1: James River, so it's a good, little, good place to
Speaker 1: pregame before making the drive, very doable drive to Shenandoah,
Speaker 1: which we did. And this was all kind of in
Speaker 1: the midst of a few months being on the East
Speaker 1: Coast up and down for these different events that you
Speaker 1: were working at, and we knew at some point we
Speaker 1: wanted to make it to Shenandoah, but we needed to
Speaker 1: be strategic about it because this was spring and is
Speaker 1: notoriously fickle in terms of weather, so we needed to
Speaker 1: wait until enough time had gone by where things were
Speaker 1: warming up and the snowy mountains could thought out more.
Speaker 1: And it needs to be drivable for our RV for sure, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean for an East Coast park, this place has
Speaker 1: a pretty impressive elevation. I mean things can get cold
Speaker 1: and snow up there above the clouds. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: definitely an elevated place by East Coast standards for sure.
Speaker 1: And I I loved it. I was really blown away.
Speaker 1: And it's the main part of it that you're driving
Speaker 1: through was this road called Skyline Drive. And I honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I told you this at the
Speaker 1: time we're driving through, but I was definitely thinking it.
Speaker 1: I feel like Skyline Drive should be a level on
Speaker 1: the next Mario Mario Kart game, you know, right, definitely,
Speaker 1: because it's like it's like Rainbow Road. It felt like
Speaker 1: Rambow Road, but like safer but National Parks Edition National
Speaker 1: Parks Rainbow Road, um, not in outer space. And so
Speaker 1: Skyline Drive is this long hundred and five mile main
Speaker 1: road that runs along the crest of the Blue Ridge
Speaker 1: Mountains from the park's northern end to its southern end. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely one of those, like the most ultimate scenic
Speaker 1: drives in the entire National Park Service. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a must drive for any road trip. Yeah. But seriously,
Speaker 1: that we drove the whole entire thing, didn't we um
Speaker 1: or most of it? I think at least at least
Speaker 1: seven percent. I think there was a section maybe towards
Speaker 1: the far something end that was closed off for road
Speaker 1: damn it or something, but we did drive a vast
Speaker 1: majority of it. And skyline drive is iconic for good reason.
Speaker 1: It takes you deep into dense forest and then up
Speaker 1: along some high elevation mountain ridges with these panoramic valley
Speaker 1: views on either side of the road along the way.
Speaker 1: The overlooks are just killer, and there are so many
Speaker 1: of them, and you're gonna want to stop at practically
Speaker 1: all of them, I mean, because each viewpoint just gets
Speaker 1: better and better and higher and better. How you get
Speaker 1: the better it gets. I mean, even though for us
Speaker 1: in our V some of these overlooks were a little tricky.
Speaker 1: It was kind of hard to park and get in
Speaker 1: and out sometimes and we had to back up our V.
Speaker 1: But and that's only because the trailer was attached. But
Speaker 1: even then it was still wasn't that hard. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of them are really narrow and they didn't have like
Speaker 1: loop type overlooks, So these are the ones you had
Speaker 1: to kind of pull into then pull out of, and
Speaker 1: with an RV, that how the trailer being towed behind it.
Speaker 1: That was really tricky, and I don't know how you
Speaker 1: do it, Honestly, I could never just thinking I get
Speaker 1: I was just sitting the vac sat nervously by to
Speaker 1: my nails and holding fin which is I'm sure very
Speaker 1: helpful for you. I appreciate your emotional support. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: my pattern. But anyways, the Skyline Drive is so incredible
Speaker 1: that it actually became the first road to east of
Speaker 1: the Mississippi River to be named a National Historic Landmark
Speaker 1: on the National Register of Historic Places. And it's also
Speaker 1: a National Scenic Byway. That's amazing. It's this road has
Speaker 1: more accolades than Meryl Street. Oh, it's the Meryl Streep
Speaker 1: of scenic drives. That's yeah. Yeah, and it totally it
Speaker 1: really is the leading lady of this park too. Genandoah
Speaker 1: is um to give you a sense of the geography
Speaker 1: of this place. It's a pretty long, narrow park, mostly
Speaker 1: anchored by Skyline Drive. It's but not only is it
Speaker 1: known as the scenic drive destination, it's a hiking paradise too,
Speaker 1: with hundreds of my little trails that branch off either
Speaker 1: side of Skyline Drive. Yeah, you can actually hike care
Speaker 1: for months and so miles of trails to explore, including
Speaker 1: about a hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail, which we're
Speaker 1: right through the entire length of the park. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that was really cool. So now we can officially say
Speaker 1: that we've hiked part of the Appalation Trail together, like
Speaker 1: little snippets of it. Let's be honest, we were probably
Speaker 1: weren't going to be hiking the rest of the trail
Speaker 1: anytime soon. Yeah. I think we actually talked about this
Speaker 1: while we're hiking here, like on the first trail, because
Speaker 1: we did part of the Appalachian and me, I, I
Speaker 1: just started like thinking and ruminating, and I remember saying
Speaker 1: to you how it'd be fun to do the entire
Speaker 1: Appalation one day, but only on the condition that you
Speaker 1: drive alongside me so that I don't have to carry
Speaker 1: a backpacker campital and so I would do like the
Speaker 1: glamping version of the Appalaian Trail. Like I said, we
Speaker 1: probably won't be hiking rest this trail anytime soon, Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean one day, one day, you'll you'll understand. Until then,
Speaker 1: I'll just wait patiently until you change your mind. And
Speaker 1: in the meantime, there's plenty of trails to hike at
Speaker 1: Shenandoah that don't include the appalation. On the west side
Speaker 1: of the park is the Shenandoah Valley, and the east
Speaker 1: has the Virginia Piedmont region, which has endless rolling hills
Speaker 1: and mountains. The west felt more lush and kind of
Speaker 1: rainforest like to me, at least once you hike down
Speaker 1: into the woods. It's really like the best of both
Speaker 1: worlds in one park. You have like these thick rainforesty
Speaker 1: forests and then these like super kind of foggy, smoky
Speaker 1: mountains on the other and these deep valleys. It's magnificent.
Speaker 1: Speaking of valleys, I cannot to talk to you about
Speaker 1: what's on the other side if some of these valleys
Speaker 1: when we get back from this short break. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia, and today
Speaker 1: we're talking about Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. For us,
Speaker 1: our entry point to Shanondo was from the front Royal
Speaker 1: Virginia at the park's most northern entrance, and it's a
Speaker 1: small town. We didn't really do anything here aside from
Speaker 1: stock up on some groceries um, and then we set
Speaker 1: up for the night at a r V park just
Speaker 1: a few minutes from the entrance. Yeah, even though it's convenient,
Speaker 1: that park was kind of shady. I feel bad for
Speaker 1: making reservation there, but I don't really, you're much better
Speaker 1: at like researching that stuff and making reservations. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: remember driving into the r V park and there were
Speaker 1: some random cows just running around and blocking our way.
Speaker 1: I mean that was an omen I'm sure, yeah, and
Speaker 1: probably should have been signed that we should turn around.
Speaker 1: But luckily we only had one night here and then
Speaker 1: we're able to wake up early the next day to
Speaker 1: get started in the park. And the entrance was right there,
Speaker 1: so that's fine. And Skyline Drive, I think, is even
Speaker 1: prettier in the morning, Like the earlier you get up
Speaker 1: and go, the better because it has all this missed
Speaker 1: kind of billowing through and you're driving into it and
Speaker 1: then all these chirping birds and some light that's starting
Speaker 1: to flicker through the trees. It's all very storybook just enchanting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: right away, it just amazes you, and it only gets
Speaker 1: better as w you're further and further down the road.
Speaker 1: Um and saw all those amazing views. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: Trill So after a few of these stops and overlooks,
Speaker 1: which took a little bit of time. Our first order
Speaker 1: of business was a waterfall hike that I had researched,
Speaker 1: called the Overall Run Falls. It's about twenty one miles
Speaker 1: down Skyline Drive, and Shenandoah is particularly known for its
Speaker 1: abundant waterfalls, especially of the tall cascading variety like this one.
Speaker 1: So I picked this trail, which is moderately strenuous. It
Speaker 1: goes down at first to lead to this waterfall valley
Speaker 1: off Skyline Drive, and then you obviously turn around and
Speaker 1: hype back up. Altogether, it's about six and a half
Speaker 1: miles round trip with uh half tea amount of elevation game.
Speaker 1: It's about eight hundred feet worth of elevation game, so
Speaker 1: it's nothing to scoff at. Yeah, it's like deceiving at first, though,
Speaker 1: because when you're going down, it makes you think that
Speaker 1: the whole trail is going to be easy and relaxing.
Speaker 1: But when then you remember then the farther down you go,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to go right back, and uh, I
Speaker 1: don't think I was too happy about that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think we're We thoroughly thought that through like we
Speaker 1: had a very leisurely comfortable chat on the way down
Speaker 1: about me wanting to do the appellation and like guilging
Speaker 1: you into driving alongside me, right right, And then we
Speaker 1: had a nice little lunch and then on the return
Speaker 1: long I was like, oh, right, we have to go up,
Speaker 1: like friendly reminder. And I'm also not that great at
Speaker 1: being a motivational coach. I remember like we were hiking
Speaker 1: up and I kept like speed hiking up ahead of
Speaker 1: you and then waiting for you to catch up, and
Speaker 1: then doing it again and repeating this process, and I
Speaker 1: think it was really annoying. It was like the most
Speaker 1: annoying way I could have hiked for you, Like it
Speaker 1: wasn't I played the fifth Yeah, But we started chatting
Speaker 1: with this other hiker who was obsessed with dashall parks
Speaker 1: like we were. And I think he was from Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Um that sounds right, Yeah, And he was in the
Speaker 1: area to check out Shannondo as well. Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: He was very nice, very and it was a nice
Speaker 1: pleasant distraction to to have someone to someone else to
Speaker 1: chat with on the way up, especially towards the last
Speaker 1: leg of this return trip. And he was clearly equally
Speaker 1: as eager for the child to be over. And I
Speaker 1: also think that's something you guys bonded over as I
Speaker 1: like flitted around you like an annoying like a mosquito. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you were basically just like running circles around us, and
Speaker 1: we were like huffing and puffing and and but the
Speaker 1: trail really was worthwhile. Yeah, any trail is, and it's
Speaker 1: all about the journey, not the destination. So true. The
Speaker 1: waterfall was beautiful. I mean it was quite tall with
Speaker 1: like a drop, and it provided this great view of
Speaker 1: the like super green forest in the Shantandoah Valley with
Speaker 1: all these rocks ledges that ran up above the waterfall
Speaker 1: for great foot opportunities. And yeah, really good. I know that.
Speaker 1: I love the rocky ledges with like the waterfall. TiO
Speaker 1: left and it's really tall, one of the tallest in
Speaker 1: the park. And then the landscape just kind of opens
Speaker 1: up and you have these unlike unmarred views of this
Speaker 1: tree lined valley. It was so nice, great place to
Speaker 1: such a vast valley, vast valley. Also, I remember this
Speaker 1: was a perfect occasion for me to wear um one
Speaker 1: of my favorite T shirts. It's the one that says
Speaker 1: get outside worst case scenario, a bear kills you and
Speaker 1: it's got this like little outline that's still ab out
Speaker 1: of a bear on it. Yeah. You you actually um
Speaker 1: got both of us will Yeah, you of one loved
Speaker 1: it so much. Um. But that's super appropriate because Shanon
Speaker 1: Doah has one of the largest concentrations of black bears
Speaker 1: in the country. Yeah, so the shirt is either appropriate
Speaker 1: and funny or tragically ironic. It could go either way.
Speaker 1: It could go either way, right, you know, since once
Speaker 1: we were done with this trail, we stopped at a
Speaker 1: little general store for some like snacks and coffee and stuff,
Speaker 1: and and uh surprisingly had a good amount of Virginia
Speaker 1: wine bubbles. Yeah, there was a lot of Virginia wine there,
Speaker 1: and I was definitely intrigued. I think I probably took
Speaker 1: a few photos of them, but I wasn't intriguing enough
Speaker 1: to actually purchase any. And I do that a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I did that in South Chocota recently too,
Speaker 1: where like we're there's all these local wines and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: how amazing we should get something. I'm just like, no, Um,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna point out because you're frugal, that's how
Speaker 1: I'll say it cheap is another way, but yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we just, um, I'm very picky. I guess I gotta budget.
Speaker 1: I have this like explosion of excite meant an interest,
Speaker 1: and then it like rapidly disappears. Yeah. No, In case
Speaker 1: the first drout wasn't enough, we decided to hike to
Speaker 1: the top of the highest peak in Jandote. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you know me, I'm a lunatic and I was eager
Speaker 1: to do Hawksbill Mountain, which has an elevation of four
Speaker 1: thousand and fifty one ft. This is it's actually pretty
Speaker 1: low compared to the peaks out west, but by East
Speaker 1: Coast standards, it's it's a behemoth. Yeah. Fortunately we didn't
Speaker 1: hike the entire four thousand feet, just you know, the
Speaker 1: top final stretches all we did. Um, because you're not
Speaker 1: that much volunt Yeah, I mean I am, but like
Speaker 1: we we didn't. It's just that's just where Skyline Drive
Speaker 1: like started, and I thought it made it very doable.
Speaker 1: It's cool that we're able to easily do the highest
Speaker 1: peak in the park in like the span of an
Speaker 1: hour and a half or whatever, and the trail is
Speaker 1: actually much shorter than the waterfall hike. It's brief, but
Speaker 1: you get a lot of elevation gain in a short distance.
Speaker 1: So you have these like steep switch backs through the
Speaker 1: woods again, like through the what 'sfortunately lots of tree
Speaker 1: cover so the sun isn't beating down on you directly.
Speaker 1: And this hike really pays off quickly though, because the
Speaker 1: views from up there are really special. Yeah. There's this
Speaker 1: little like open cabin structure at the top with some
Speaker 1: like bench seating and a rocky edge with some like
Speaker 1: show stopping views. I mean you just sit down there
Speaker 1: and you know, you just see the we like the
Speaker 1: Skyline Drive weaving along the mountain ridge, and you could
Speaker 1: just see so much from up there that it's just
Speaker 1: truly special. Like how many like small clouds you saw
Speaker 1: floating over the road when we were there, and it
Speaker 1: just felt like we were soaring now, Yeah, it really did.
Speaker 1: I love being that high up above Skyline Drive, which
Speaker 1: is a different angle, and it's a beautiful road just
Speaker 1: to look at from afar. How it like kind of
Speaker 1: wines and like we use lawn this mountain ridge. It
Speaker 1: kind of felt like we're levitating about the park just
Speaker 1: looking down at it. And this view really shows you
Speaker 1: just how expansive and lush. All of Shenandoah is dense
Speaker 1: green trees for days. I remember getting up to the
Speaker 1: top of that and we um took a picture for
Speaker 1: our friend Diana because it was her birth center, like
Speaker 1: this birthday message, and you know, Um, that's the one
Speaker 1: thing that's fun is like when we're on these journeys
Speaker 1: that we can just stop for a second send a
Speaker 1: picture to somebody just saying you're thinking of you. You know.
Speaker 1: I think I joked that we hiked the highest mountain
Speaker 1: in Shannondoah for you today, you know, and it was
Speaker 1: just one of those fun moments. Just appreciated it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just to reconnect with people, so while we're doing this,
Speaker 1: so that's actually a fun part of the National Parks
Speaker 1: and what we love to do. Yeah, totally. But and
Speaker 1: then after this, you did another hike. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of NonStop. But I wanted more like
Speaker 1: waterfall stuff because like, there are so many waterfalls here
Speaker 1: and they're so different in different environments. And it just
Speaker 1: worked out well because shortly after the Hawk Fall Mountain,
Speaker 1: we would just drive down Skyline drive I think enough
Speaker 1: early twenty miles or so, and I did the Doyles
Speaker 1: River Falls. It's about three miles round trip with upper
Speaker 1: and lower alls, so you get these different segments of
Speaker 1: this river and different looking waterfalls within the same river,
Speaker 1: which is kind of crazy. It also goes down before
Speaker 1: coming back up, similar to the previous waterfall hike, and
Speaker 1: the waterfalls here are much broader and shorter, so you
Speaker 1: have a completely different experience. I feel like these ones
Speaker 1: personally were more impressive than they were than the first
Speaker 1: high we did together, just because there's so much more water.
Speaker 1: The river was wider, so you get more of this
Speaker 1: like rushing, raging river vibe, and they're just deep down
Speaker 1: in the heart of this thick forest, so it almost
Speaker 1: had this like jungle effect, just how thick the woods
Speaker 1: were and how green it was. Go ahead, just rub
Speaker 1: it into my face. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. You
Speaker 1: came back super exhausten sway though, and you never sweat,
Speaker 1: so I knew that was a tough one. That's that's
Speaker 1: a sure sign. But I think it's because I'm so
Speaker 1: inherently competitive, even if it's just myself in my head,
Speaker 1: it's a problem because I remember leaving the r V
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, you back in like an
Speaker 1: hour and half probably, And then so since I gave
Speaker 1: myself unnecessarily like a timeline, then I'm like, well I
Speaker 1: have to do that. So like I like speed hecked down, um,
Speaker 1: got a bunch of waterfall views and photos, and then
Speaker 1: hustled back up. And it's nothing but uphill and a
Speaker 1: lot of its steep. So I was just like speed
Speaker 1: hiking trail running out a few points like again, totally unnecessary. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't know, I just like I guess I
Speaker 1: made good time because I was just raising myself against
Speaker 1: the clock for no apparent reason, and I was so
Speaker 1: thirsty and sweaty by the end of it. Yeah, I'd say,
Speaker 1: now it is a good time to to applod Shannondoah
Speaker 1: for being so dang awesome with its hiking markers. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, not only the trailheads are really clear and
Speaker 1: the overall layout of the park is really easy to navigate,
Speaker 1: but there's also like organized trailblazes everywhere that make it
Speaker 1: super simple to follow and race against yourself exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank thank you Generoah for that. Um. But everything is
Speaker 1: very well marked and clear, very easy to follow, hard
Speaker 1: to get lost. So the trail system works like blue
Speaker 1: blazes indicate a hiking trail, white blazes indicate the Appalachian Trail,
Speaker 1: and then yellow blazes are horse trails, but that beings
Speaker 1: that hikers can go on any of them as they please.
Speaker 1: So the whole park is really free rain for hikers
Speaker 1: and I couldn't love that more. Obviously, even Skyline Drive
Speaker 1: is well marked. I mean, while mile marker is along
Speaker 1: the entire drive very apparent. It's also obvious to find
Speaker 1: where you are in a GPS or a map and
Speaker 1: to figure out where you want to go. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: So like when you're reading about it, or look at
Speaker 1: your visitor guy that you pick up and you want
Speaker 1: to pick out a hiking trail, they're all denoted by
Speaker 1: like what mile marker it is, so like this waterfall
Speaker 1: hike is at mile sixty seven, or like this one's
Speaker 1: at mile eight one, so you know exactly where you are,
Speaker 1: and they have all these my mile markers along the road,
Speaker 1: and it's it's so easy and very refreshing, especially when
Speaker 1: you compare it to some of the larger, more overwhelming
Speaker 1: parks out West. Snada was really just a piece of
Speaker 1: cake to navigate history. So let's talk about some of
Speaker 1: the background in the history for a bit. Shenandoah was
Speaker 1: designated as a National park in ninety five, and it's
Speaker 1: located in western Virginia in a land area about two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand acres and almost eighty thousand acres of which
Speaker 1: are pure wilderness. So there's a ton of backcountry goodness
Speaker 1: to be found here for those incline to get off
Speaker 1: the beaten path a little bit. Yeah. I mean it
Speaker 1: might be less than a hundred years old as a
Speaker 1: national park, but there's a lot of history here too.
Speaker 1: I mean for starters, there's some old rocks here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like some of the rocks here are old enough to
Speaker 1: make dinosaurs seemed like newborn babies. By comparison, some of
Speaker 1: the rocks day back more than a billion years old,
Speaker 1: like the Grenville Age granitic basement rocks. That's actually what
Speaker 1: helped like form Shannandoah. Yeah, essentially, these rocks kind of
Speaker 1: created the foundation for it. They like rose more than
Speaker 1: a billion years ago, and the rocks are similar. We're
Speaker 1: created by similar forces to like the Himalayas. This process,
Speaker 1: this mountain range emerging from these tectonic plates shifting via
Speaker 1: ancient collisions underneath the Earth's surface and imagining a billion
Speaker 1: years back, this this land in Virginia was Himalayan looking
Speaker 1: mountain range and now they've eroded in the subsequent hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of years to what we're left with now
Speaker 1: with Shenandoah, these much smaller mountains that look more like
Speaker 1: rolling green hills and these ancient rocks that kind of
Speaker 1: formed the foundation of it. And that's just crazy because
Speaker 1: people don't even like start to give this park its
Speaker 1: dues until the nineteen hundreds, when like President Calvin Cooliage
Speaker 1: sought to create more National parks on the East coast.
Speaker 1: At the time, Makadia was the only National park on
Speaker 1: the side of the country. Yeah, and legislators were hustling
Speaker 1: to spread the love, especially seeing like all the first
Speaker 1: national parks out west like Gallistone and Tsiquoysembity and Mountain
Speaker 1: near and it just wasn't fair, No, not at all.
Speaker 1: So Coolidge worked with the National Park Service to help
Speaker 1: acchoire Land to form Shanandoah National Park and the great
Speaker 1: now Smokey Mountains. Yeah, and it was about time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone was seeing how successful the national parks out west
Speaker 1: were and how they helped local economies, so people in
Speaker 1: Virginia really wanted to get in on that park. Yeah,
Speaker 1: understandably so. The Turkey thing though, when farming Senada was
Speaker 1: that the region here in Virginia was inhabited by a
Speaker 1: lot of local farmers and residents, so there was a
Speaker 1: ton of private property to contend with, unlike this landscape
Speaker 1: out west, which are just vast and occupied, and the
Speaker 1: government had to either buy them out and or promised
Speaker 1: that some older residents could still live on their properties
Speaker 1: for the rest of their lives. Which is so interesting
Speaker 1: to me that you could potentially be living in a
Speaker 1: national park because you're just grandfather Dan. I'm jealous. I
Speaker 1: am too. I would love to live and die in
Speaker 1: a national park. And the final resident here Shenandoah was
Speaker 1: this woman, Annie Lee Bradley Shank. She died at her
Speaker 1: home in Shenandoah in nine at the age of ninety two.
Speaker 1: Even the new president, Herbert Hoover, was asked to turn
Speaker 1: over some land because no one was above the National
Speaker 1: Park Service. Yeah, that's nice to see. So he owned
Speaker 1: a fishing camp called Rapidan Camp, which is near the
Speaker 1: Rapidan River in the park. He used it at the
Speaker 1: time as a little vacation ghettoo in the woods, which
Speaker 1: actually sounds like a really lovely idea for a president.
Speaker 1: I'm sure privacy and serenity is hard to come by,
Speaker 1: but fortunately for all of us, he was willing to
Speaker 1: turn it over to help create an establish Shenando National Park,
Speaker 1: and visitors today can tour the fishing camp with the
Speaker 1: ranger guided trips. Yeah. Once the park was established and
Speaker 1: immediately helped boost the local economy, giving jobs to the locals.
Speaker 1: The Civilian Conservation Corps. The c SEC provided training and
Speaker 1: work for thousands of people during the Great Depression UM
Speaker 1: when the work was needed really the most. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: And people flocked here like crazy, they were so excited
Speaker 1: for Virginia's National Park. I remember reading about this and
Speaker 1: seeing photos of crazy traffic and one of the visitors
Speaker 1: centers and just like the immense onslaught of people once,
Speaker 1: like you know, opening day, it was like opening day
Speaker 1: at disney World or something. When all these people flocked,
Speaker 1: they were just they couldn't wait. Yes, food. So about
Speaker 1: halfway down Skyline Drive we exited the park after doing
Speaker 1: a few hikes that day, and we spent the night
Speaker 1: in a beautiful RV park in this town called Laray, Virginia,
Speaker 1: which is one of the more popular mountain towns for
Speaker 1: park visitors. Yeah, it's a pretty small town, but it's
Speaker 1: really pretty and peaceful and the people are nice. Our
Speaker 1: V park was great to had more than one swimming
Speaker 1: pool and some serious looking water slides too. I know,
Speaker 1: like six blogs how our water slides looked looked great.
Speaker 1: I didn't go in, but it looked great. It also
Speaker 1: had this arcade with a bunch of cool looking games,
Speaker 1: including like this multiplayer arcade version of that Nintendo game
Speaker 1: Luigi's Mansion, which I had never seen in that format before.
Speaker 1: Just amazing. I guess Larray, Virginia is like on the
Speaker 1: cutting edge of arcade innovation. It seems someone had recommended
Speaker 1: to us that we check out this bar called the Speakeasy,
Speaker 1: located in the historic old hotel in the Ray called
Speaker 1: the MIM's Land Inn. It's a huge mansion like building
Speaker 1: on a hill overlooking the town. Yeah, it reminded me
Speaker 1: of like the Clue Mansion, but then again, I have
Speaker 1: a tendency to compare anything vintage and ornate to Clue,
Speaker 1: so probably take that with a grain of salt. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had an RV parked at the campground and we
Speaker 1: were trying to call a lift to get into town,
Speaker 1: but they didn't exist in the ray, so he wound
Speaker 1: up asking someone at the front desk for a cab company.
Speaker 1: And apparently there's literally just like this one guy in
Speaker 1: town who drives you around if you call them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was really, I guess, kind of charming. He was nice,
Speaker 1: and he was a very old school cab driver, which
Speaker 1: fits with the overall vintage vibe of this town and
Speaker 1: this hotel and this bar. Yeah, he was so nice.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was very informative about the whole area
Speaker 1: in the park, and it's always nice to like get
Speaker 1: and meet those between ers, the the locals. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: he also knew a lot about birds too. I remember
Speaker 1: he described himself as a birder. And I don't remember
Speaker 1: where he was from originally where he grew up, but
Speaker 1: he told us that he moved to Laray in the
Speaker 1: Shenando area because of the birds. Like he's apparently he's
Speaker 1: a hardcore burder where he's willing to uproot his life
Speaker 1: to look at birds. Yeah, we have to go back
Speaker 1: on a trip with Brooke because he loves brock our nephew.
Speaker 1: He loves birding, and that's the person to take him around.
Speaker 1: But I guess that's enough about birding, So let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and talk about that speakeasy. What's really wasn't it speaking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: speakeasy is a bit misleading. I'm not sure that this
Speaker 1: hotel really knows what a speakeasy is. Um. Maybe they
Speaker 1: just think it's like a somewhat subterranean lounge or something,
Speaker 1: because that's basically what it is. It's this dimly lit
Speaker 1: downstairs bar slash restaurant. There's nothing super speakeasy or like
Speaker 1: secretive about it. It's just this. It's great though, It's
Speaker 1: this cozy hotel bar, and we loved it. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: glad we went. We were very happy to be here
Speaker 1: drinking cocktails in this swank little setting. Oh yeah, and
Speaker 1: they had your basic classics like Margarita's and apple martini.
Speaker 1: Right now, very sex in the city is surprisingly in
Speaker 1: the unlikeliest place I did not. Laray does not strike
Speaker 1: me as the type of place where you could get
Speaker 1: an apple martini, But here we are. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: kind of sweet for our taste. Um, so we wanted
Speaker 1: getting some local Virginia wine, which was surprisingly great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm glad that we finally got to try it
Speaker 1: without actually buying a bottle at that visitor center. We
Speaker 1: can just that's this is what I like. I like
Speaker 1: to try it. I don't like to commit to a
Speaker 1: whole bottle because try then. Yeah. Right, So I remember
Speaker 1: for dinner having this salmon dish with bourbon glaze, wild rice,
Speaker 1: green beans, ambitious and delicious, and then we had apple
Speaker 1: pie for dessert. I think all amode naturally. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can't eat apple pie without ice cream, though, it's like
Speaker 1: eating dry without cheese. Yeah, I don't know interest in that.
Speaker 1: In this ice cream too, it wasn't just like vanilla.
Speaker 1: It was like cinnamon ice cream, which was perfect, and
Speaker 1: it added like just the right amount of spice and
Speaker 1: sweetness as it melted down to the apples, which we're
Speaker 1: already kind of cinnamony and I can't get enough cinnamon.
Speaker 1: So this was great. We'll be back with more of
Speaker 1: the Parklandia podcast from My Heart Radio My Favorite. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is Parklandia and we're
Speaker 1: wrapping up our episode on Shenandoah National Park talking with
Speaker 1: each other about our favorite parts of this park. M Brad,
Speaker 1: do you wanna tell me what your favorite part of
Speaker 1: Sanandotah was? Yes? The fog. It just said such like beautiful,
Speaker 1: like eerie feeling, And I just I love that about
Speaker 1: National parks. When you're at one high up in the
Speaker 1: mountains you have this fog you're driving through it, or
Speaker 1: when you park and you just look back in your
Speaker 1: r V, is like it looks like it belongs in
Speaker 1: a movie. I just fog is my favorite thing. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: fog and miss too, what's your I think my favorite
Speaker 1: part was the Doyles river Falls trail that I did.
Speaker 1: That I hustled through. The river views were disincredible, but
Speaker 1: also the trail itself, I wish I kind of slow
Speaker 1: down and enjoyed it a little bit more from like
Speaker 1: a you know, did that like a sane person, because
Speaker 1: the trail was glorious and really relaxing, pretty uncrowded, and
Speaker 1: part of the way down the trail to I didn't
Speaker 1: mention this earlier, but I took this little I accidentally
Speaker 1: took this little side trail which I didn't really mean
Speaker 1: to take, but it goes up by this old cabin,
Speaker 1: which isn't just this abandoned cabin, and it was just
Speaker 1: me alone up there, a little creepy, a little eerie.
Speaker 1: I could definitely see this being haunted. Um, but it was.
Speaker 1: It was interesting and seeing this aspect of it too,
Speaker 1: and then being like where am I? Like? What did
Speaker 1: I take a wrong turn? Because obviously this isn't a waterfall? Um?
Speaker 1: But yeah, just the way that this park and the
Speaker 1: woods have been used by various people over the years
Speaker 1: for hunting or fishing and exploration, and then now with
Speaker 1: the applation through hikers as well. So that was not
Speaker 1: a little glimpse into that, I guess inadvertently, But that
Speaker 1: trail was was awesome and those waterfalls were extraordinary. I
Speaker 1: really really liked it. Yeah, I'd really love to bring
Speaker 1: like enough things to like make your own cocktails. And
Speaker 1: you know you're going to need to bring your hiking
Speaker 1: backpack to go on that Applaian trail, right, No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring you in RV driving behind me. So
Speaker 1: what three things to do bring to this park? What
Speaker 1: three things would I bring? I think I would bring
Speaker 1: stuff to have a picnic. I think this feels like
Speaker 1: the type of place that's a great picnic park, got it.
Speaker 1: I'll bring the cocktail stuff. You bring the picnic stuff. Yeah, sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there we go. That's one in one. That's another thing
Speaker 1: you would bring. Another thing I would bring would be
Speaker 1: my Um well, I would just bring my same T shirt,
Speaker 1: my black bear T shirt, because this is the place
Speaker 1: to wear that. I think everybody appreciates the shirt and
Speaker 1: it just really really fits. And then i'd bring my
Speaker 1: hiking sticks because you like to take me on crazy
Speaker 1: hikes and they definitely came in hand. Yeah, you bought them. Here,
Speaker 1: this is your first part. You bought taking sticks. I
Speaker 1: already broke one of them. I know you're like, immediately
Speaker 1: broke it. Yeah it's not my phone did last? Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I would also bring I think our clue
Speaker 1: board game just in theme, go to that clue looking
Speaker 1: in and then play the clue game. That's actually a
Speaker 1: great idea. Um. I would actually bring fuel because there
Speaker 1: came a point where we're like, okay, we're getting long
Speaker 1: on fuel because it's a long drive and I didn't
Speaker 1: feel it before leaving or entering the park, and so
Speaker 1: on upon leaving, I had to get it right away.
Speaker 1: M Yeah, that's something to think about. Um, and now
Speaker 1: let's talk about like what our dream vacation version of
Speaker 1: Senaa would be if we were to come back here
Speaker 1: and just kind of go go crazy. Yeah, absolutely, why
Speaker 1: don't you start off with this? All right? I will.
Speaker 1: I think we should stay at that end the MIM's
Speaker 1: ln in. Of course, I'm very curious about that. We
Speaker 1: didn't see any of the rims. All we did was
Speaker 1: go to the U Speakeasy bar. But I just you
Speaker 1: can get a sense of it that it's probably really luxurious,
Speaker 1: It's in a very vintage way, so I want to
Speaker 1: do that. I also really want to go and just
Speaker 1: check out their main restaurant, Circa thirty one is the
Speaker 1: name of it, and not only does like superstylish and
Speaker 1: swave like the rest of the property, but the restaurant
Speaker 1: also hosts dinner shows and Murder Mystery dinners, which could
Speaker 1: not be more perfect. We have to do this like
Speaker 1: Murder Mystery Dinners, Like I was actually really bummed when
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that because you know from Hyahoga Valley
Speaker 1: episode how much we love our Murder Mysteries train rides
Speaker 1: and dinners, and that would have just been been perfect, right,
Speaker 1: I know for anyone who remembers our first episode where
Speaker 1: we geeked out on the Murder Mystery train ride, they
Speaker 1: know full well about our obsession with murder mysteries and
Speaker 1: how crazy and wonderful to discover this hotel, which looks
Speaker 1: like the Clue Mansion also host murder mysteries. That's just perfect,
Speaker 1: It's literally perfect. And then of course we would also
Speaker 1: have to do more hikes exploration of Shannon Douah. Maybe
Speaker 1: you can even hike the whole Shannon do a part
Speaker 1: of the Appalatian Trail. Um. Yeah, I would totally do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that would be a nice way to dip
Speaker 1: my toe into the Appalachian. Just do an easy hundred
Speaker 1: mile hike. But you're don't town me that because you
Speaker 1: know I'll actually do it, and then you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to drive and pick me up and pamper me in
Speaker 1: the evenings. They'll be tired pamperings. Right, you have been
Speaker 1: listening to park Landia, a show about national parks. Parklandia
Speaker 1: is a production of My Heart Radio created by Matt Carrolluac,
Speaker 1: Brad Carolluac and Christopher has produced and edited by Mike John's.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Christopher hasiotis special thanks to Gabrielle Collins,
Speaker 1: Crystal Waters and rest of the park Landia crew and
Speaker 1: Hey listeners. If you're enjoying the show, leave us a
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you
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Speaker 1: in our Facebook group Parklandia Rangers. From our podcast my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always,
Speaker 1: thank you for listening. Al Broke