Claytor Lake State Park (May 10, 2017)

There are some things you take a chance on, like an impromptu pick for a state park.  It can dissapoint and it can delight. The stop at Claytor Lake was a delight.  It's only 2.5 miles off the interstate.  There are enough trails to walk.  Given we were only there for a short 3 mile hike, so it sufficed.  There's a nice paved trail, Lakeview Trail (.8 miles), that runs along the lake to the marina. You pass nice cabins on the water. I'd consider staying there.
At the marina, we crossed the street and got on the Poplar trail towards the campground.  We walked through the campground just to consider the potential of staying in the future.  The campground appeared to be an easy in/easy out and have space large enough for big rigs.
From the campground we took the Claytor Lake Trail (1.55 mile) back to the car.  The trail takes you through some breathtaking views of the forest riddled with Poplar trees.  On the way we stopped a the Claytor Lake Overlook.
And there was plenty of wildlife for the dogs to take interest in.

Definitely worth the stop and maybe even a future visit.  The absence of sound with an occasional soprano tone of a bird's song underscored the serenity of this place.  It was peace.  And another bonus, the park is about an hour from Abbington, Va so if we ever travel that way to ride the Creeper Trail then we might consider staying here and enjoy the lake sunsets.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KOA Oceanside CampGround and Bar Harbor Maine 2016

Image
We took the 95 N route to Bar Harbor KOA from NH. Weather was much cooler in Maine. We arrived at the KOA Bar Harbor Oceanside, site 272 the best site in the campground.  Right on the water. I would say the campground in total has a typical KOA campground feel to it.  But, if you luck out to get a nice site on the water, the campground takes on a completely different feel.  The campground is not far from the town of Bar Harbor.  The cost of the campground is really for that water view and the proximity to Bar Harbor.  We headed into town and mom and dad got crabcake and lobster roll sandwiches from our favorite fresh seafood place Peekytoe Provisions. Russ and I got fresh Scottish salmon to put into a salad. On our next trip to Peekytoes we ate the amazing crab cakes and crab bisque for lunch. The bisque was amazing and we recommend paying the $2 extra for more crab meat in the bisque. We were here last fall and had a cafe we loved for popovers and blueberry pies (Cottag
Read more

Skyline Ranch Resort - May 11-13, 2018

Image
The Winchester area has always been one we've struggled to enjoy as a destination.  It's a great venue for agility, but the lodging has been lackluster.  Normally we stay at Candy Hill with the RV, but we don't enjoy it.  The campground is an easy-in, easy-out, right off the interstate. That is the only positive.  Forget about late check-out - they nickel and dime you for every minute.  Once we left 15 minutes late, but didn't worry about it until a young kid started chasing our RV on foot to retrieve the $2.00 owed for being late.   As far as the campground amenities and aesthetics, there isn't much to speak of. This trip, we decided to try somewhere different - Skyline Ranch Resort.  It was a significant improvement in primarily location.  The views of the skyline are breathtaking.  We stayed in site 132 (the row 130-132 is easy to get set up and rather level, but there isn't any shade).  There is another row on the other side, specifically site 23, that is s
Read more

Kitchen Remodel Dec 2018

Image
We finally decided to improve the kitchen.  We had golden oak hardwood cabinets and a green/blue laminate countertop.  The cabinets did not have any decorative moulding and they were all uniform - no dimensionality.  The island had a raised bar portion that was raised 10 inches high.  I don't have a picture of that, but below is the picture with the bar raise cut down to only4 inches. Step 1 was to have some dimensionality in the cabinet above the microwave and over the fridge.  In addition, we added a light rail moulding at the bottom of the cabinets and decorative crown moulding on the top. Cabinet over fridge has been pushed out Cabinet over microwave has been pushed out Some other things needing to change were the fluorescent light above the island, the chandelier above the table (the light shades were relocated to the den fan), the old white appliances,  and the stainless steel sink faucet. The cabinets were in great condition so we opted to just paint th
Read more