Fifth Annual Black Friday Hike - Rose River (Shenandoah NP)

A few friends and I have a tradition of "hiking off the pie" on Black Friday. This year, we did a long hike in the central district of Shenandoah. We started at the Rose River trailhead on the eastern boundary of the park. Immediately after entering the park, we left the trail, crossed Rose River (Cold!) and bushwhacked to Climbing Rose Falls and Buzzard Rocks. Climbing Rose Falls is a really pretty waterfall. I would love to go back there closer to sunrise or sunset for better pictures. From there, we made the steep climb up to Buzzard Rocks, where we had lunch. By this time, it was close to 65 or 70 degrees - incredible. From Buzzard Rocks, we headed due west, our destination the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail. This part of the hike seemed to take forever. It was really pretty, but the hill we needed to go over was endless and had about 15 false summits (or so it seemed). Once we reached the trail, though, we made good time on our way out. All said and done, we hiked around 13 miles, the last hour in the dark. Definitely beautiful and worth it.



Climbing Rose Falls


I propped my camera on this log to take pictures of the waterfalls. When I stood up, I noticed the remains of a crawdad that some critter had eaten while sitting on the log.


The view from Buzzard Rocks


Lichen on a rock.


A (not quite sharp) picture of Dark Hollow Falls right before sunset.