Free entrance to National Parks

Did you know that April 17 through 25 you can get into more than 100 national parks for free?

We decided to take advantage of this, so after soccer this morning, we drove to Shenandoah NP and drove part of Skyline drive. The Appalachian Trail (the AT) crosses it many times, so we got to see the trail markers

and tree blazes.

We saw lots of beautiful trees and hills. I know they're called mountains out here, but after living near the Rockies and the Wasatch mountains, it's hard to call these mountains. And yes, I know they're older and more worn down, and all that, but it's still not the same. They're beautiful, and I love all the trees, but they feel like the foothills just before you get to the mountains. Mr. S thought that too.

It was a beautiful day, we got to see more of the area we now live in, and we got to scope out whether it's worth getting an annual pass and coming back. An annual Shenandoah NP pass would be paid for in two trips, but I think we're going to get the interagency annual park pass so we can get into all national parks as well as national forests and sites managed by the BLM and other agencies. It's not that much more expensive, and we'll get our money's worth.

We're definitely going back and doing some hiking- I'd like to hike part of the AT. I have no desire to do the whole thing, but a day hike, and possibly an overnight trip, would be fun. There's many trails, so we could go every weekend and still not hit them all. Not that we will- we have too many other commitments. LMS was quite upset when we said we weren't going hiking today- she was all ready to go!

I also want to go back in the fall when the leaves change- it should be beautiful then- all those tree-covered hills changing colors.

Since we didn't have to pay the entrance fee, we only had the cost of the gas for the trip, and since it's not actually that far away it's something we can do again.