Seneca Rocks and Canaan Valley, West Virginia

Friends’ cabin + gorgeous fall weather + mountains + good friends (who did the driving) = a lovely, needed weekend. I had never been to that area of West Virginia (Canaan Valley) and it was beautiful. The trees had lost a lot of their color, but there was still enough that, when the sun shone, reds and golds and oranges made the mountains spectacular.

First, at the Monongahela National Forest, three of us started off with a hike on a sodden Dolly Sods Wilderness trail that was pure, slippery bog the first quarter, but then became quite lovely with gorgeous mossy, rocky trails through rhododendrons and ferns. Of course, the last part had lots of uphill trails, but it wasn’t bad, and we were quite happy with the whole trip. Also, the drive to Dolly Sods alone was absolutely beautiful – and nobody was out and about. We rarely ran into anybody on the trail.

Then we met up with our friends at their get-away-home, where another friend joined us, and where we ate, relaxed, and marveled at the mindsets of three- and five-year olds. The next day (today) we also marveled at their energy, as the five-year-old walked/ran/ran back down/ran up again the entire way to the observation platform at Seneca Rocks, and the three-year-old almost made it too. We adults were fine, but we were amazed at the stamina of the kids. Seneca Rocks, by the way, is an incredible outcropping of rock, on which rock-climbers gather. But we just hiked in the woods, going up switchback trails to the top, and marveled at the view.

Pictures below, but I forgot my regular camera, and the battery on my phone kept running out, I smudged the lens, and apparently I accidentally lowered the picture size by a few MB. Obviously, I was enjoying the trip, and wasn’t so focused on recording it. So few pictures, but great memories.