Take a Hike

For a while now, I have been wanting to go hiking in the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia. I haven't had a chance to until this past Fourth of July weekend.

Located a mere two hours away from Washington, DC, Shenandoah National Park is home to over 500 miles of trails, including 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail. You can access many of these trails from the famous Skyline Drive.

We did only a mere eight of the 500 miles that Saturday. :) We took the Cedar Run Trail to the top. The trail ends near Skyline Drive (where it was at least ten degrees cooler than where we had started. (Take a jacket!) It is 3.4 miles and can be relatively difficult since it is very steep. The best thing about this trail is that it has a few water holes that you can jump into and a great, natural water slide that ends in a water hole. (Very cool. I will bring my bathing suit next time!)

The Fire Road connects The Cedar Run Trail to the White Oak Canyon Trail. This trail is 4.8 miles long. It is relatively steep going down so wear good shoes. The best thing about it is that there are a ton of wonderful waterfalls! (Me encanta las cascadas!) The waterfalls along the White Oak Canyon Trail are better than the ones along the Cedar Run Trail.

White Oak Canyon, the Fire Road and Cedar Run form a loop. You start with either Cedar Run or White Oak Canyon, but I would suggest that you start with Cedar Run. It is the steeper of the two and would be hard to have to walk down (in my opinion).

If you are not up for a 6 hour hike, you can always go part way and turn around to come back. You could walk up the Cedar Run Trail to the water slide, hang out there for a while and come back. It is about half way up the trail.

No matter where you like to go, take a hike this summer to stay in shape!