This
post is disgustingly over due I know. I can’t say that I feel that guilty about
it though. Charlie and I have been on the go since we got back from our last
park on this trip. We came home to the James River at unheard of levels for
this time of year, and so many raft trips that the only time we are in dry
clothes is at the fire station. And you know what? I have just been enjoying not having any homework and not
having to be on the computer. I’m going to get back into the swing of things
though I promise. So here is the review of the second half of our state park
tour. Late but better than never.
The
next stop on our state park endeavor was Natural Tunnel. This park has been the
hidden gem of the trip. It is a small park with a few trails. One of the best
trails was “Lovers Leap.” The trailhead was right in our campground and a
fairly easy walk. First you walk an old fire road for a bit then all of a
sudden you are looking out over this huge gorge. The lookout was great, a nice
cool breeze and some shade. The hike continues down and around the rim of the
gorge and gets to an overlook where you can really see the natural tunnel-
hence the park’s name- and the train tracks that run through the tunnel. The
view was spectacular. The campsites were neat and well kept and not too close
together. The bathhouse as well was super nice and clean. I can’t say this
enough, but a clean and well-kept bathhouse can make a trip in some ways. This
had to be one of our favorite places to stay, and for very good reason. We met
two of the nicest people on the planet. Known to us as “Moose and Dixie,” they
had to be the most welcoming people we have met so far, and they loved having
the pups around. Charlie and I were all but adopted by them. They are retired
and spending as much time as they can in their camper going where ever they please.
They are the type of people that you want as grandparents ya know? Plus they
drank us under the table, which is always impressive. We will most definitely
be making the trip back out here; it is absolutely worth the drive.
Next
we made a day trip to both the Wilderness Road State Park and the Southwest
Museum. Wilderness Road was interesting. They don’t offer much in the way of
camping; you’ll need a tent and to bring your own water. No RV camping though.
They have recreated Fort Martin, which is pretty cool. It is very typical of
things you would find say at Jamestown. There are also re-enactors there to
guide you around. They informed us we missed about 600 re-enactors that were
there the weekend before for a re-enactment. I admit part of me snickered.
Being from “the North” there is always a cynical part of me that snickers at
re-enactors. I had honestly never encountered them until we moved to Virginia.
But I digress. I’m sure it was impressive. I am still curious how you get the
job of hanging out in a re-created fort, cleaning old guns, and wearing funny
clothes and get paid by the state to do it.
The
Southwest Virginia Museum was quite lovely. Again it was more a school field
trip type of place, but Charlie brought up a good point. It is probably a great
local attraction in that there is only a certain amount of their extensive
collection of artifacts on display at any one time, so the exhibits change. They
have some 20,000 artifacts that chronicle life in Big Stone Gap VA during the
1890 coal boom. The grounds of the mansion are beautiful and great for a picnic
lunch, one of which is held Sundays in the warmer months. There were a bunch of
quilts on display the day that we visited and some arts and crafts of local
artists. I got a very cool local vibe from the place. I was disappointed
however when I found out that they did not have a patch.
Once
again we hit the road and headed to what we were hoping to be one of the best
parks yet. Boy were we disappointed. Very disappointed. Breaks Interstate gave
me a weird feeling as soon as we got there. You know when you go to a place and
it just feels weird and the people around you seem weird too? Well that was
Breaks for me. Now I was trying to keep an open mind and we still are, but here
is what has us not thinking we will be back. So first off the campsites, they
were decent. Nothing too impressive, but we id like how they were set back in
the woods. We stayed in the “D” campsite, which was hard to get to, as the
signage around the campground is rather confusing. We are hoping that this
experience was maybe a fluke thing and just limited to the “D” campground, but
the bathhouse was atrocious. They are very outdated, which would have been fine
if they were clean. In the women’s side the soap dispenser had corroded the
electrical box pretty much off the wall, the paint was peeling everywhere and
there was trash scattered all over the place. After I picked up the trash, and
made sure all of the toilets were flushed it was a little better. Yes I am the
person who cleans up a park restroom; people are so gross and I don’t ever want
to be accused of being a part of the problem. Besides it’s not that hard to
make sure the toilet flushes or that you throw your trash in the trash can! Now
for the men’s side… I wasn’t brave enough to look after Charlie came back from
taking a shower only to tell me that he hadn’t taken a shower. Here’s why.
Apparently the first shower didn’t have much water pressure, about enough to
wash your hands in and that’s it, the second one was stopped up but he thought,
“I’ll just quickly rinse off and head back to the camper.” Well as he was about
to step into the shower, a serpent like creature (he could not confirm or deny
if it was a worm, snake or whatever- he didn’t stay around long enough to find
out) came swimming up from the drain and proceeded to enjoy the shower that
Charlie wouldn’t. I didn’t even try to tell you the truth I was ok with being a
little stinky.
One
of the weird things about where we stayed was that there was a lot of traffic through
the campsite. Now we later figured out part of the reason was because there are
a lot of “driving trails” we called them. You can drive just about anywhere to
just about any overlook, but good luck finding a hiking trail. The other reason
we think is that one guy appeared to be living there. Who knows?
After
Breaks, and not soon enough we were on our way to Hungry Mother. The campsites
here were great and very scenic. We stayed in the B campground and it was right
along a stream and very beautiful and not too close together. Hungry Mother
offers a ton of hiking and biking trails, and a large lake to swim in. I would
feel very comfortable bringing a canoe here, but there are some motorboats that
come through. There are canoe rentals and paddle boats as well. We ran into
more rain and people during our stay here but we were noticing that as it has
gotten warmer and closer to Memorial Day the crowds are getting bigger. Again
rave reviews for the facilities here, especially since we didn’t have to share
them with the local wild life. We did have a bachelor group of mallards that
hung out around the campsite, floating around in the stream. They were very
entertaining to watch. This park I imagine gets very busy in the summer, as
there is a convention center and other facilities that accommodate larger
groups. So as always my advice is to plan ahead and make reservations.
From
Hungry Mother we day tripped to Claytor Lake. This park is much like Smith
Mountain. There is a huge lake with a very nice marina. Again a large amount of
motorboat traffic, but a great place to bring your boat if you have one. Again
not a place that I think we would hang out much. It was a VERY nice park, but
our boats don’t fit in there and there isn’t a ton of hiking trails, definitely
a place for fishermen.
Douthat
was the last stop on this round of parks, and according to Charlie the best
park of the bunch, and I have to agree. Douthat offers a beautiful lake that
Seven thoroughly enjoyed swimming in and Charlie and Angus enjoyed the fishing.
The campsites were tucked into the woods a bit, which really gave it a camping
feel. The facilities were slightly outdated but they were clean and well kept
so it didn’t matter. We had a great time playing in the lake and playing in the
streams. Charlie didn’t have any luck with the fish but it didn’t really matter
because we had such a good time. The morning of our departure could not be
better timed though. When we went to bed the night before we were one of three
campers in the campground and when we woke up, the invasion had begun. Before I
could get the pups fed and under control a very nice lady was asking if she
could put her tag on our campsite and what time we were leaving. I wanted to
think that she was being rude, but she was very nice about it. We could not
pack our stuff and get out of there fast enough. We have officially decided
that Memorial Day is not the time for us to go camping. EVER. Way too many
people with very obscene campers, and yes there is such a thing.
As
our trip came to a close I was sentimental about it. I wasn’t quite ready to go
home, but then again I was. The cool thing was we came home to a garden that
had exploded while we were gone. I was afraid that it was all going to die off,
but apparently we got plenty of rain at home too. It’s back to work, and boy
there is plenty of it, the James River is being very kind to raft guides this
year. We still have a few more parks to go before we finish the list. Stay
tuned.
