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We decided to take a less direct route to our next campground than either my GPS or my phone wanted, in order to see more of Shenandoah. The park is organized around the Skyline Drive, so we aimed for the town of Front Royal, just north of the start of Skyline. We had lunch at a cute little cafe there.
Once in the park, we got tips from the rangers for a few easy hikes (this should be a rest day after climbing all day yesterday). The first was a nice walk to a lovely historic viewpoint, the Stony Man summit on the forehead of a hillside that looks like a sleeping giant.
We drove the rest of the way to our campsite and set camp, then Adrienne and I walked over to the camp store to pick up a few groceries. That turned out to be an accidental 2 mile walk.
After we got back, we went with Anaka to check out the Big Meadow that this park of the park is named for. It was a lovely sea of tall grass and wildflowers, with lots of unconcerned deer snacking away. We walked along the fire road all the way across the meadow and continued into the adjoining woods. We walked a ways into the woods, and were about to turn back when Anaka noticed a bear nearby. The bear took off pretty quickly, but was in fairly open terrain for a little way, so we got a pretty good look at it, and a few pretty bad pictures.
Somehow we managed to walk about 8 miles on our rest day.
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