Camping The Shenandoah Valley

Two weekends ago, we packed up our camping stuff and the Marston's and the Dutkiewicz's and headed out to the Shenandoah Valley.  We booked a couple sites in the beautiful River's Edge Campground, literally right on the river's edge.  It took about 3 hours to get there but such a gorgeous drive through the mountains and forest.  

Before we even got there we saw a black bear!  He was actually right by the road when we first saw him but by the time I got my phone out to take a picture he had retreated into the woods.  Probably from me telling him not to move.

This was our view when we got to the campsite.  Everyone was already there and mostly unpacked but we had to take a few minutes to enjoy the scenery.

We had some drinks and some snacks and enjoyed the fire for the evening.  It was actually freezing out the first night so we didn't sleep to well but it was still great to be out.  Our view of the river in the morning.

Playing in the water.

Later in the morning Josh and I and Jason and Nicole went and rented some kayaks and paddled about 8 miles of the Shenandoah River.  It was beautiful and relaxing and luckily we brought the Go-Pro so we got some pictures.

The guys fished from the kayak and we stopped for a few minutes for them to fish and Nicole and I to go play with some cows and spiders.  The trip took us about three hours and was so nice.  We had one small rapid that we were super worried about that turned out to be nothing!

 When we got back to the campsite, the guys went floating on the river with the kids a few times, I think they had the most fun doing this!

And Josh fished more.  Just FYI, they did catch quite a few!

Saturday night I slept way better and it wasn't cold. We got up and I poured some Mimosas for the girls.  They were delicious!

More floating ensued, for some reason I never ended up going but it looked fun!o

As we were packing up, we noticed this painted on to a tree in our site.  So sweet.

Once we were packed up, Josh and I hit the road and headed for the Luray Caverns.  A massive cavern formed from stalagmites and stalactites that is amazingly breathtaking.  We spent about an hour down inside getting a tour.

Dream Lake.

The Ice Cream cone.

The world's largest instrument.  The Stalacpipe Organ.  An Organ made by tapping on various parts of the cavern.

Pluto's Ghost.

The Wishing Well.  We didn't have any coins on us.  I did get about 40 drops of water on me though, which is supposed to be 1 year of good luck for each one so I'll take it.

Every year the money from the Wishing Well goes to different charities.

The Fried Eggs.

War memorial.

After the caverns we were starving so we stopped in Luray at a place called Uncle Buck's.  We had to go based on the name alone, but it was also a southern food/BBQ joint so it was a no brainer.  So good!

Across the street there was a super cute coffee place we had to stop at too for the drive home.  One of the best Chai Lattes I've ever had.

We also stumbled across the Copper Fox Distillery just down the road from Luray.  it was actually a cute little area with the distillery, Penn Druid Brewery, a farm stand that sold eggs and meat and a really cool antique and book store.  We sampled some whiskey at the Speak Easy style distillery and some beer at the brewery and grabbed some eggs and sausage as well. 

 

That was pretty much it!  We had a super laid back weekend with friends in one of the most beautiful places ever and the weather was amazing, not much more you can ask for!  We will be heading back to Shenandoah very soon!