The first of many overlooks along Skyline Drive, this one looking west towards the Shenandoah Valley.

A busy place on Sunday of a holiday weekend, but we were able to get a lot of good trail information here.

A trail going down into the hollow where the Fox family lived before the park was constructed.

There are a number of old family graveyards in the mountains here.

A reminder that life could be short in the early 20th century.

About a 2-foot black snake slithering along near the visitor center.

The leaves were changing, but without many maple trees, it was mostly yellows and oranges.

The Appalachian Trail is always close by the Skyway.

The Appalachian Trail runs close to Skyline Drive for most of its length in Shenandoah National Park.

On the first day, we walked a couple of miles on the "AT."

We stayed three nights at the Skyland Resort at mile 41 of Skyline Drive. The room was nothing special, but it had LOCATION! And the lodge had an excellent dining room for our meals.

View looking east from outside the patio door of our room. And at night the dark skies were spectacular!

The old lodge that was constructed here when the resort was established in the 1920s.

Typical cabin accommodations are also available at Skyland.

On our second day, we took a ranger-guided walk to Hawksbill Mountain.

The forest was rock-strewn wherever you looked. These mountains are among the oldest on Earth, and look the part.

All the trails off Skyline either went up to a mountain or down to a waterfall. Lots of elevation change in either case.

We both made it! By the end of our third day, we would be in pretty good climbing shape.

Another hike in the afternoon took us to the top of Stony Man Mountain.

We crossed the AT again on the way to and back from Stony Man Mountain.

The Appalachian Trail is marked by white blazes, and the local trails by blue.

The Rose River Trail past two waterfalls is not a particularly long hike, but it was certainly challenging and took a lot longer than the mileage would indicate.

The junction markers were very helpful once you figured out how they were marked.

After being told how rare it was to actually encounter a bear, we'd only gone a short way before seeing this small black bear about a hundred yards off the trail. He took a look at us and went back to his pre-winter feeding.

The trail was rough and rocky at best, and we were glad we had some good hiking boots to wear.

After a long downhill walk, we got to the Rose River and continued downward toward the falls.

It was a bright, sunny day, and the colors were in their full glory. Having mostly oak trees means mostly yellows and oranges in this area.

After descending almost 900 ft., we started back upwards only to find that the trail along the river was very rocky.

In October of an unusually dry year, the rivers and falls are pretty lame. But it was still worth the walk to get here and appreciate the natural setting.

An artifact of the copper mining that went on back here in the early 1900s.

This bridge took us over the river that runs down from Dark Hollow Falls, along which we would start our upwards trek.

These cascades come down from Dark Hollow. You can see that the trail alongside is also pretty steep in some places.

In the spring, all these rocks could be underwater as the snowmelt flows down.

Another waterfall slowed to a trickle, but after more than two hours of hiking it was rewarding to be here.

There's a shorter way to get here from Skyline Drive, so there were a number of other people around at this spot. One of them even took our picture.

The walk from the falls back to our car was relatively easy, but just as we started up we saw another bear down the hill to our right. They're definitely more active this time of year.

In the late afternoon, we took another ranger-guided walk to the top of Blackrock, which is near the Big Meadows Lodge area.

A great way to end a full day of activity. We were both looking forward to a nice dinner in the lodge on our last night at Skyland.

The next afternoon, we were at Gettysburg and went to the beautiful new visitor center at the Battlefield National Park.

A ranger talk in the National Cemetery, near where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

This was the stone wall where Pickett's Charge was stopped on the third day of the battle. It's known as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy."

The battlefield is covered with state and unit monuments of all sorts. Most of the Northern ones were erected in the late 1800s, with the Southern monuments added as the years passed.

A view from the location of fierce fighting on the second day of the battle.

Probably the largest monument at Gettysburg, and the most elaborate.

A stop on the way home in Hershey, PA. (No, we didn't stay here!)

Probably the closest we'll get to staying here, though.

Even the scenery along the turnpike is pretty at this time of year. Overall, the driving conditions were excellent all the way.