Camping in the Shenandoahs

 

The rolling mountains!

Last weekend my boyfriend and I went camping in Shenandoah National Park. We had such a fun time, hiking during the day and drinking wine (and toasting marshmallows!) by the fire at night. Here are some photos from the trip:

1. Butterflies: We saw SO many butterflies (the milkweed was in full bloom)! We saw a million Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (the yellow ones) and Spicebush Swallowtails (the black one). We saw some others (the little orange one is either a Pearl Crescent or Northern Crescent), and I think I caught a glimpse of a Monarch!

<-- The two tiny ones in this picture are Common Skippers, which actually aren't butterflies or moths, but a completely different thing. Who knew?

2. Other wildlife: We saw lots of animals on this trip! Unfortunately I do not have many pictures of them. But we saw a black bear foraging in the woods by the road, a chipmunk, a mouse, a deer, and three young barred owls flew around our campsite calling to each other!

I think this was a Timber Rattlesnake. It wasn't aggressive (luckily!).

3. Plants: We saw some beautiful flowers on our trip, too. There were thistles in the Big Meadow (along with blueberry and blackberry bushes. Yum!), and cornflower grew along the road.

-The flower with the butterfly on it is a type of Thistle. I think the red flowers above are Columbine, and these pinkish ones might be Purple-flowering Raspberry.









4. Sunset: We watched the sunset on Friday night, and it was mesmerizing!

5. Waterfalls: We saw a few waterfalls on our day hikes. Personally, these are more fun than the actual views!

I'm not particularly outdoorsy, but I did show off my DC EcoWomen spirit!