Lost Cliffs - January 1, 2012

 

We started 2012 on the right foot, with a hike in the Shenandoah National Park!  We learned of this lesser known hike through one of Jamie's Christmas/Hanukkah presents to Alex.  It was a great hike for us because it was mostly unused (we only ran into two people on horseback), giving us plenty of opportunities to try out Jamie's new camera, a Christmas/Hannukah gift from Alex.  The hike was very easy, as the majority of it was on a gently sloping fire road, unless we wanted to explore the cliffs.  Although our hike started out with blue sky, clouds bringing a steady light rain quickly moved in, cutting down our time to traverse the cliffs or utilize the many features of the camera.

The cliffs were located less than a mile into the hike and appeared in the woods seemingly out of nowhere, hence the name of the trail.  Due to the rain, we only reached the top of the first cliff, but we were still impressed by the view.  If the weather had cooperated, we would have been able to see quite far through the valley.

We spent most of the time on our hike photographing a creek with a very small cascade.  The moss on the rocks made the scenery very picturesque, so we could easily have spent much more time there.  The book describing the hike also mentioned that if we ventured further down the road and off the trail, we would reach a much larger cascade.  This means another trip down the fire road will be needed in the near future!