I’ve been craving a good, long, remote hike for awhile now.  Lately it has seemed like we’ve been on the go with social engagements – either family or friends, in town or out – almost every weekend.  While friend time is fun and important, we all needed some time to decompress, breathe, and just be together as a family.  And so when Steve asked me what I wanted to do as a birthday weekend activity, I had one request: a hike.

As we’ve planned out our hikes for the year, I’ve had my eye on two Virginia state parks that are a little more off the beaten path: Sky Meadows and Shenandoah River.  Both are within our home region of northern Virginia, but they’re far enough away from D.C. to make it very difficult to get in a hike and make it home for lunch and naps without anyone (coughNUGGETcough) falling asleep.  But lately the guy’s been on a weekend nap strike, so Steve and I decided – if he’s not going to nap at home no matter what we do, why worry about car naps?  With the time pressure removed, we found that our exploration options widened substantially.

After hemming and hawing a bit, I decided that we should do my birthday hike at Sky Meadows.  We’ve actually been there before – in 2009 or 2010; I can’t remember which.  Long, long ago in the days before babies, Steve and I used to go on super cool dates.  Can you imagine?  And one evening we packed up a picnic and joined a stargazing evening party hosted by Sky Meadows.  We plunked down a blanket right behind the house and listened to a talk on constellations while taking turns peering through telescopes at the night sky.  The park is super-remote, so there’s almost no light pollution – turns out, Sky Meadows is a very apt name.

Anyway, it had been a long time, and obviously we weren’t going to be doing any stargazing this time.  (Although I can’t wait to take the kids to one of the Sky Meadows star parties when they’re old enough to enjoy it.)  The park also has a big network of hiking trails that we’d explored a little back in the day, and I was looking forward to reacquainting myself with the footpaths.

When we got to the park we discovered that there was an autumn family festival going on.  We chatted with the rangers a bit and promised to return after our ramble – and then it was off to check out the trails.  We decided to do the Snowden Trail, a fairly easy, but still scenic, loop through the forest.

Here we go!  The path was wide and carpeted with leaves, and the terrain was gently rolling – nothing too crazy; just enough to keep things interesting.

After a bit of walking on the main “road” (a slightly larger path, really) we turned onto the Snowden Trail and enjoyed a quiet morning’s walk in a beautiful forest.

The trail network was well populated.  On the main trail, before we branched off, we saw a large group coming back from a night of camping.  They had several small children with them, which really inspired me.  We’ve been discussing camping with Peanut’s BFF and her family.  BFF’s dad really wants to get his family into camping, and her mom agreed to go as long as I was there – haha!  They’ve been asking us to camp for months, and I’ve been putting them off, because I didn’t want to introduce tent camping until Nugget was out of his crib.  Fortunately, they totally understand that – next summer, it’s ON.

Once we got onto the Snowden Trail, the leaves were slick with dew and I had to spend a lot of time looking down at my feet so as not to fall.  Fortunately, the view of the forest floor was just as gorgeous as the rest of it.  Can you believe that moss?

Eventually, we made our way off the trail and back to the main part of the park.  I gratefully let Nugget down out of the backpack – I swear he gets bigger every time we hike – and the kids scampered off to explore the fall festival attractions.

There were wooly bear caterpillar races.  I liked the caterpillars, but was appropriately horrified at what they will eventually become (disgusting tiger moths).

The kids named all of the caterpillars and coached them ruthlessly through their races.  The ranger in charge – who shared a name with Peanut – thought they were delightfully adorable.

I decided to commune with some critters more my speed.  CHICKENS!  They were sitting on the gourds as I approached and I thought they’d make a fantastic photo, but a fellow park guest scared them off by trying to pick them up.  Poor form, fellow park guest.

After I’d run around snapping pictures and the kids had sufficiently traumatized the caterpillars, we packed up and drove to the picnic ground for lunch.

Nugget was confused about what was happening, and he didn’t eat much as a result.  But I was so excited to be out on a picnic – a picnic! – with my family, and not be contorted into an impossible position shouting at Nugget to stay awake in the backseat as we sped home for lunch in our kitchen.  This was much more relaxing!  The kids had cheese, crackers, tomatoes and fruit, and the parents had falafel sandwiches – yum.  Such a treat!  I’m so glad we can finally do things like have picnics an hour away from home now.  There’s one consolation of the kids not being tiny babies anymore…

Thanks for a perfect birthday hike, Sky Meadows!

What’s your favorite state park?