An Appalachian Hipcamp Road Trip: Atop a WV Mountain, Rain or Shine

Next we went to a campsite above the Greenbrier State Forest.

We met our host Joshua at the bottom and followed him up the nerve wracking drive to the top.

You can tell I was focusing intently as I forced my little Honda Insight up the steep incline.

We survived. Although the weather was misty and a little chilly.

We took the short walk up to our campsite to set up camp.

Meadow doesn't always like wearing backpacks, but I love when she's willing to hike in with her sleeping bag.

We'd picked up some take out Mexican in a town on the road in. Yuengling and some Mexican classics. It just seemed right.

After dinner we explored the area. The camp host, Joshua mentioned there were old logging trails we could take along the property.

This site is called Mountaintop Solitude. We really did feel all alone up here atop West Virginia.

We saw these bug nests on a lot of the trees.

One of the paths brought us down to a creek.

She insisted on pulling me along.

When we found the creek Meadow was happy to play hockey scotch again

This area reminded me of High Cliff in Wisconsin.

Spring was just starting up here.

The sun didn't peak out again, but that was just fine with us.

Joshua gave us some recommendations for shops in town, but the drive up the mountain kept us in place.

We retired to our tent early and read books and other things.

Lewisburg From Atop Greenbrier State Forest

Before bed I saw that nearby Lewisburg was glowing off in the distance.

Day 5

The ride back down the mountain was easier than going up.

You could say it was kind of fun.

While we were waiting for Joshua and his family I explored the hiking trails in the state forest. I like that there were signs of suggested exercises.

We then decided to have our breakfast in the picnic area.

Meadow helped with the pancakes until she realized there was a playground.

After breakfast I wanted to stop in nearby Sulfur Springs to see the Greenbrier Resort. It's been here since 1778! I would have loved to go inside, but we were a little muddy from our stay in the mountain.

Comments

Sisters, a Brother and Walking Chicago

Summer always seems to mean one thing: weddings. Whether I'm shooting or attending, we're bound to end up at a few every year. This time around we were heading down to Chicago from my big sister Katrina's nuptials. I feel like all our vacations are centered around a wedding or something wedding related. I wish we could go on a vacation without having to worry about being somewhere. It also means a few repetitive trips down I-94. There aren't nearly enough unique stops off the interstate. One outlier is Foster Cheese Haus , the only organic Wisconsin cheese shop I know of. Run by the folks behind Castle Rock Organic Farms , we always try to stop by. Unfortunately for us they were closed on Wednesdays, but at least we got to spy on their darling garden out front. Brooke and I arrived in Necedah. We decided to stop at Brooke's sister Brittany's home along the way to cut the ride in half and get her dressed hemmed. ...

Dakotas Road Trip: Badlands and Black Hills

I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going. Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream. We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy. I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

Japan Family Trip - Part II: Exploring the Shrines and Wilds of Nikko

We had originally planned on taking the bullet train down from Tokyo to Kyoto for a day or two. While being epically fast, it was a bit spendy for the four of us. After talking to Brooke's coworker we settled on a two day trip to Nikko and its World Heritage Sites to break up our week in Tokyo. This turned out to be an amazing decision. The town is teaming with beauty from ancient shrines to epic waterfalls and some of the best meals we had on our trip. Kyoto didn't seem all that appealing to me when I started researching which location to go to. I too am glad we chose to head north to Nikko. When we booked our Tobu Nikko Spacia X tickets I upgraded to the premium seats thinking that we'd be sitting facing one another. Instead we ended up with 4 individual seats, two in the first two rows and two in the last two rows. It turned out just fine with the kids sitting in front of us in two groups. Meadow and I were seated at the front of the car. Once in awhile we'd pas...

Search This Blog