Jason and I snuck in one last hike before we left Shenandoah National Park. Starting from the Skyland area was the Stony Man Trail. Proximity and a difficulty level of “easy” made it an ideal choice. But easy definitely didn’t mean boring.
It was a 1½-mile round trip hike to the summit of Stony Man Mountain, the second highest peak in Shenandoah.
I can officially say I’ve hiked along the Appalachian Trail. It overlapped with the first portion of the Stony Man Trail. I was rather geeked out by this 
Appalachian Trial that way…
Stony Man cliffs this way…
It was on the verge of raining the entire time, but it never really got going. I think the mist added a little something to the whole scene.
At first, the trail felt very similar to the Ice Age Trail. Then suddenly, it didn’t.
Jason spotted rub marks left by deer.
The rock cliffs of Stony Man put us at 4,010 feet above sea level.
Ice and wind shape the gnarled trees. The lichens all over everything are courtesy of the weather conditions: frequent fog and rain alternating with drying winds. It was creepy, yet really cool.
And from the summit of Stony Man, we could look over Skyland Resort…
We stayed right there
As we drove along Skyline Drive leaving the park, we made sure to pull into the Stony Man Overlook for a picture. Can you see him?
The top is his forehead, which is where we climbed to. Then there is space for his eyes, his long rock nose, and his tree-covered beard. He is looking to the west and slightly upward to the sky.
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I must say that I really enjoyed Shenandoah National Park. It was very different than the other national parks we have visited, but different doesn’t mean worse. It is special in its own way.
It would be an ideal place for a beginning backpacker. And most importantly, I didn’t fear for my life 
Actually, we found the threat-related differences the most interesting. There are bears, but the warnings about bear encounters are few and far between. There’s no mention of mountain lions, although according to Jason it is their ideal habitat. I love that he made this remark at the top of Stony Man, with ¾ of a mile of wooded, rocky, mist-shrouded forest between us and the car 
I almost forgot to mention that we were lucky enough to see a bear. We were aware that bears are in the park, but sightings are rare. As we continued out of the park, I spotted a big, black blob moving in the woods just off the road. I yelled to Jason just in time for him to stop. No picture, but we had an incredible view of a small black bear, chasing a deer no less. And this black bear was black, unlike the cinnamon-colored ones in California. We were so pumped!
Technically, Shenandoah is only a day’s drive from home…a very long day’s drive. But I definitely want to go back again to explore more of the park.
