Blake, his mom Teri and I went to Teri’s brother’s retirement get together on 11/2/2019. We rented a hotel room and the next morning we decided to hike Dark Hallow Falls. Blake hiked the falls before with Nick and really enjoyed the hike. This is also my first hike since finding out I am pregnant.
Dark Hollow Falls Hike:
Trail Type: Heavily trafficked out and back trail
Distance: 1.4 miles
Elevation gain: 564 feet
Location: Mile Post 50.7 off Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park (Visitors must pay to enter the park, annual passes can be purchased as well)
We began our hike around 11:15 AM. This trail is very popular and not a lot of parking is available. We had to wait until spots opened up to park. The trail was very crowded but we made it to the falls. The falls have a couple of viewpoints of the falls. From the first viewpoint you can see a larger part of the falls.
We continued to hike down to the lower part of the falls. Again the trail was very crowded and it took longer than we anticipated to get to the lower part of the falls.
Baby on board
The Dark Hallow Falls trail connects to the Rose River fire road as well as the Rose River loop trail. We though about doing the Rise River loop trail but didn’t think we would have enough time. We decided to go back up to the car. On our hike back to the car, we stopped at the creek and waited until we saw a trout. To see trout in the creek, you have to remain very still and eventually you will be able to see them.
The leaves in the mountains were at peak color when we visited. These colors made for beautiful pictures.
After leaving Shenandoah National Park, on our drive home we saw a sign for Horton Vineyards and decided to stop. Yes I am pregnant and no I did not drink any wine. We arrived at the vineyard and went inside. It is somewhat busy and we waited until space was available at the counter for Blake to do a wine tasting. We waited a long time and they kept taking people that came in behind us. Blake eventually got space at the counter and began his tasting. However it seemed like the employees were tied up with other things and were very inattentive. We did not enjoy our experience with this winery at all and left before he finished his tasting. (Tasting was already paid for). I do not feel we will go back to this winery. The vineyard and building on the other hand were beautiful with beautiful views.
Nic of Time - Travel 