Road Trip in May 2012 - Goshen Pass

Goshen Pass Natural Area Preserve in Virginia is a natural heritage area under the auspices of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. We followed the directions in the fact sheet to the parking area located 1.7 miles north of the VDOT rest area on State Road 39 West. There is a swinging bridge to take across the Maury River. It was a great way to start and end the hike!

We were there in the morning and noticed that the little bit of extra warmth from the sun peeking through the clouds made the birds and butterflies more active. It was a wonderful woodland walk. The mountain laurel was just beginning to open and there were other flowers that seemed to be a bit further along in their blooming than what we saw in Shenandoah.

After the hike, I noticed more flowers blooming near the parking lot and walked over to take a look at them. The big surprise was the first hummingbird moth I'd seen this year. These are fun insects to photograph because they are big enough to see easily - but also a bit of a challenge because of their speed. Even with the coolness of the morning, this specimen was extremely active!

Road Trip in May 2012 - Virginia

We just got back from a 3-day road trip to Shenandoah National Park. It was a little cool and wet but the wild flowers were wonderful. We started out referencing the park's wild flower weekend schedule (it's this weekend if you are in the area) then supplemented it. Now that I'm home I'm looking more at their wildflower web page to identify what is in my photographs! I'll post more of my photos of Shenandoah and Goshen Pass over the next few days. The ones today are just the intro!

First are some pictures from the Virginia rest stop. I took a similar picture of the 'welcome' sign back when I took my road trip in December. This one has a lot more green in it! It was also a little warmer and I enjoyed the iris that were beginning to bloom. I also noticed that the benches have the Virginia map shape on their backs - it was too wet to sit on though!

There were not many people at Shenandoah while we were there. It is early in the season and we were there on week days. The wet weather probably kept some people away as well. It didn't rain on us while we were out but there were plenty of muddy areas. It was good that the big panoramic views from the overlooks were not our primary objective for the trip because it was way too misty along Skyline Drive. The wildflowers actually are probably better in not-to-bright weather.

Just to give you a small sampling of what we saw - I've included azaleas and trillium photos in this post.

The cool weather is also great for roses and there were some at our hotel that looked so wonderful with their water droplets that I couldn't resist photographing them.