Liz’s Birthday 2023, Day 7: Driving Through Shenandoah National Park, Travel Day Back to Chicago

April 28, 2023

We had an afternoon flight to catch, but an hour and a half drive from Luray back to Dulles. My goal was to get to the airport around 11:30 AM, so we still work up a bit early… and decided to take one last drive through Shenandoah, going in at Thornton Gap and exiting up north, at Front Royal.

Basically doing the reverse of the drive we took a few days ago.

We were up early, which put us in line with the deer and the bears. But it was also raining, so we didn’t have high expectations.

I should mention – we got incredibly lucky with the weather. All week, it was great, and the only day we saw rain was the day we left. Incredibly fortunate.

Forgot to take a photo of this extremely detailed and extremely hilarious note in the bathroom.

A rainy drive, north through the park.

Liz, with her eagle eyes, spotted several of these birds. They were typically crossing the road, or just along the forest line.

No idea what these guys were, but she spotted a ton of them. No deer or bears sadly, but lots of these guys.

A brief pause, along one of the overlooks.

We tried to capture the extent of the fog, but nothing really does it justice. When we hit a large/open clearing, the fog was almost total… reducing visibility to about 100-200 feet.

When we re-entered a forested area, the fog broke apart… but it was a ghostly mix for the whole drive. Much like the drive at night, this morning we felt like we had the park to ourselves.

At the airport, doing some last minute packing.

Back home, our bags were pretty soaked. Not sure how long they remained out in the elements, but apparently it was a while. Long enough so that the top layers of our luggage got wet.