Hike to Overall Run Falls

It's the end of summer and we didn't have a chance to go camping and try out our camper.  So to celebrate the last hurrah before school, we went up to Shenandoah National Park and camped for a couple nights.  We headed up on Thursday evening and stayed through Saturday around noon.

After breakfast Friday morning we went for a hike to Overall Run Falls.  We were excited to see some cascades and enjoy the walk along the way.  (Too bad the cascades were a mere trickle!!!)

 The boys said this rock has a butt crack.  Leave it to them for the visuals!

 The hike was beautiful.  Some parts were really dark and others really light.  There were a couple places where there were no rocks on the path and it was almost spongy to walk on.  It was kind of cool.  

At one point we heard a rattle.  We all stopped and looked to see if we could find the snake.  Unfortunately it must have been hiding in a hollowed log.  Thankfully it wasn't right next to the path.  We got the message and tiptoed past.

We also saw a deer and stopped to watch her.  Next thing we knew she had a baby near her.  It was cool to watch them as they saw us.  Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of them.

 Here the guys are looking over the edge to get a glimpse of the 29' cascade (it was pretty underwhelming).  Since there hadn't been any big rains recently, there wasn't a lot of water.

 This is a view from the cliff over the 93' falls.  Below is a shot of the actual falls.  Again, not enough water to amount to much oohing and aahing!

 These are on the cliff over the falls.

It was a really long hike.  As we were walking and seeing markers, it added up to only be about 4 miles round trip.  WRONG!  It felt like we walked forever and ever.  Travis was absolutely done and cried the whole last mile or so.  It ends up that the brochures all say it's about 6.5 miles round trip.  Oh yeah, and it's considered to be a moderately difficult trail.  So props to the boys - especially Travis - for completing it!