I spent the Memorial Day weekend with some friends on a camping trip to Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Below are the photos and videos. Scroll down for more detailed description of the trip.

Photo Albums:

Campground

Endless Caverns

Waterfall Hike

Skyline Drive

Videos:

This was my second over-night camping experience, the first being in Grand Canyon. This time we camped at the KOA campground which turned out to have plenty of fascilities to make the experience more sanitary than camping in the wild like in Grand Canyon. They had bathrooms with showers, laundry room with a big sink where we could do the dishes. They also had a swimming pool, a playground and a TV gazebo. Those who ran out of drinks could purchase them from a vending machine. They also had a shop with last minute camping supplies including fire wood.

I learned that to start the fire is not as easy as I thought. The fire would keep extinguishing apperently because the wood needed the time to evaporate the moisture so that the fire could burn continuously. Here is the video of us starting the fire: We brought lots of food with us and cooked on the camp fire. First night we had italian sausage with sauerkraut and the second we had take with bacon and corn. Of course on both nights we also had the baked potatoes which were cooked by wrapping them in foil and baking in the fire. The food tasted delicious. Somehow eating outside makes it more enjoyable.

Sleeping in the tent that I borrowed from Julia was not actually that comfortable because I could barely fit in it. I had to lie diagonally with my head in one corner of the tent and my feet in the other. Even so, I still was pressing against the tent walls with my feet. But still, this tent was better than nothing. It was protecting me from the wind and bugs. Thanks, Julia for letting me borrow it. Also thanks to Joanna for letting me borrow her inflatable matress. It made it much more comfortable to sleep!

All Campground Photos

Shenandoah valley is full of underground caverns which are open for the public to visit. I went to one of them called Endless Caverns. We were taken on a group guided tour through dozens of passages and rooms of all shapes. One of the biggest rooms called Alexander Ballroom was actually used for literally "Underground" parties years ago. These are the seats where the band used to sit. The rock formations were fascinating. Many of them had names based on what they looked like, for example: Scooby Doo, Sand Dunes, The Curtains, and... The Birdie.

At one of the deepest points of the tour, the guide wanted to demonstrate to us how deep we were by turning off all the lights. The room became pitch black! I mean you could not see a thing! Good thing the guide had a flashlight because if the installed electric lights had broke down, there would be no way for us to get out without it.

The only living creatures that we saw in the caversn were tiny bats hanging off the rocks.

At end of the tour we came to one of the most ornate rooms of the caverns in which the guide turned off the lights once again, but this time for a brief music and light show. Here is the video: The tour lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. When I got out back to the surface it was tough to believe that starting just several feet below there is such an amazing underground world.

All Endless Caverns Photos

After our first night in camp we had a quick breakfast consisting of cereal with milk and bread with jam. Then we packed the food for lunch in our backpacks and took off for our hike in the Shenandoah National Park. The drive from the campground to the park was almost an hour.

This turned out to be the most tiring hike I have ever done. When we showed our proposed route to a park ranger, she said that it really should be done in two days, or we should have come earlier and camped for a bit in the middle of the hike to rest up. But we still went ahead and did it. Out of the six people in our group, three people including myself ended up hiking for 9.5 hours covering the distance of 18 miles! The first half of the hike was a constant ascent of 3500 feet over more than 4 miles! This has been my record in hiking and I am happy I achieved it, but I am not planning to beat it any time soon. The other three decided to go back down.

The exhausting hike did pay off with some of the most beautiful waterfalls I've seen. We have seen a total of 8 of them. Here is a video of some of them: The water was too cold to swim in the swimming holes, but it sure felt refreshing.

Here is the summary of the hike route:

Total distance 30Ks (group 1) / 15Ks (group 2).
Start time : 10:15am (Rt 600 parking lot).
Finish time : 7:40pm (group 1)

Part I :  White Oak Canyon Falls (3 falls)
Ascent : 1500ft (from 1000 to 2500) over 3Ks.

Part II : Cedar Run Falls (3 falls)

Part III : Lunch 1:30pm-2pm

Part IV : Ascent to Skyline Drive
Ascent 2250ft (from 1250 to 3500) over 4Ks.
At top at 2:45-2:55pm
Split in 2 groups.

Part V: 3:05-3:35pm Hike to Rose River Falls.

Part VI : Hike to Dark Hollow Falls
Ascent 500ft over 1.5K.
At Dark Hollow at 6:50pm

Part VII : Hike to Parking lot.

All Waterfall Hike Photos

The next morning we slept late since we were all exhausted from the hike the day before. It was our last day on the campground, so we collected all the stuff and packed in the cars. There was no time to make breakfast so we just had it at Burger King. We decided to spend the morning and afternoon driving along the Skyline Drive which stretches for 105 miles on top of the mountain ridge of the Shenandoah National Park. Along the drive there were multiple overlook areas where we could park the car and get out to admire the breathtaking views of the valley.

All Skyline Drive Photos