Skip to main content

Summer Vacation Road Trip - Day 2 - Charlottesville to Elizabeth, PA

Image
By
The second leg of the trip home was from Charlottesville northwards to Elizabeth. I wanted to hike and visit Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia along with take a view of Seneca Rocks. I took a little detour to get back to the Casselman River Bridges on US 40 - but it started to pour down rain when I began taking pictures. Go figure.

If you'd like to see the entire roadtrip portion of the photo set, head here!

To start...and to prove I still take sign photos...

cutouts for US 33 and VA 42 in Harrisonburg - the light changed faster than I expected so I got a rather amateur shot of this.

Anyways, I started by following the old Seminole Trail north of Charlottesville to US 33 near Ruckersville. Mainly just to follow the old alignment - and to try and get photos of the old truss bridge over the North Fork of the Rivanna. Unfortunately, the bridge is being replaced and the road was closed...so I had to detour a little bit. I would really have liked to get photos of that bridge, oh well.

There are some great scenic views on US 33 in West Virginia. The first is right at the state line -

The next view point is just west of Franklin of the Germany Valley. There are some rather impressive views here.



I finally got to Seneca Rocks and by this time it was rather cloudy. I did stop by the visitor's center and took photos. I do wish I had hiked to the one overlook to see the rocks from that perspective. I had thought I would be doing more hiking at Blackwater Falls, more on that later.

Seneca Rocks are an impressive rock outcropping that rises about 900 feet over the North Fork River. The rocks are a destination for rock climbers - and there are a few climbing schools in the area. For the entire Seneca Rocks Set on Flickr - head here.




The town of Seneca Rocks is extremely small..and it almost seems like something you may find in the Rockies. Besides the climbing schools, there is a general store, and a neat abandoned Auto Building with an old neon Ford Tractor sign.



Next was Blackwater Falls State Park, which I had been wanting to explore for sometime. The falls are awesome. They are definitely worth the visit. I was slightly disappointed with the hiking trails...most are segmented and under a mile...to do a six mile hike you may be on five or six different 'named' trails. But the falls, they are amazing - and are worth the visit. Not a bad view to be walking down to eh? For the entire Blackwater Falls set on flickr, go here.



From Blackwater Falls, I headed back to Elizabeth, but I had to stop at what is supposedly the smallest church in the Lower 48 - Our Lady of the Pines in Silver Lake, WV


Oddly enough, right next to Our Lady of the Pines - is the "World's Smallest Mailing Station".


Next, I decided to take some backroads in Maryland and made my way to Grantsville to get some photos of the "Little Crossings" Bridge - the massive 1813 Stone Arch bridge that carries the old National Road over the Casselman River. Just as I started to get photos, it began to pour down rain. Ruining my chance to walk around the area and get more photos of Penn Alps and of Grantsville.


It rained most of the way back, so I didn't get a chance to get photos of the Addison Toll House or the new US 40 bridge over Yough Lake. Oh well, there are other days for that.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bleriot Ferry - Alberta

By
  Alberta operates six ferries scattered throughout the province. Roughly twenty to twenty-five kilometers up the Red Deer River from the town of Drumheller is one of the most scenic ferry crossings in all of Wild Rose Country, the Bleriot Ferry. Using the North Dinosaur Trail (Alberta Highway 838, or AB 838), the Bleriot Ferry provides a scenic river cruise of sorts in the Canadian Badlands. The Bleriot Ferry started operating in 1913 as the Munson Ferry when a few bridges crossed the Red Deer River. The ferry was started by Andre Bleriot, the brother of famed early aviator Louis Bleriot, who became famous for being the first person to fly over the English Channel. At the time, the Alberta provincial government commissioned local residents to run the ferries. There were several ferries along the Red Deer River, and not only did they serve as vital transportation links, but they also served as local social hubs, since everyone had to take the ferries to go places. Over time, as the...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Pollasky Bridge

By
The Pollasky Bridge near modern day Friant is a ruined highway bridge which was completed during early 1906 as part of the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road.  The structure is one of the oldest known arch concrete spans to have been constructed in California.  The bridge briefly carried California State Route 41 following the destruction of the Lanes Bridge in 1940.  The Pollasky Bridge itself was destroyed by flooding during 1951, but the ruins can still be found on the Madera County side of the San Joaquin River.   Pictured as the blog cover is the Pollasky Bridge as it was featured in the 1913 book "The Concrete Bridge."  The structure can be seen crossing the San Joaquin River near Friant below on the 1922 United States Geological Survey Map.   Part 1; the history of the Pollasky Bridge The Pollasky Bridge site is near modern day Friant of Fresno County.  The community of Friant was established as Converse Ferry during 1852 on the San Joaquin Rive...
1 comment
Read more

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates Year in Review 2024

By
Welcome to another annual review of progress in constructing North Carolina's New and Future Interstate routes. While 2024 was not too exciting, with no new segments of major routes opening, there was 1 new interstate signing, another proposed new interstate route, and the near opening of a new segment for 2 routes. As tradition, I will start off with a review of what happened with I-73 and I-74 and then move on to the major news of the year about the other new and future routes. Work continued on the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass through the year. The last few months have been hoping for news of its opening before 2025, without luck. Signs of its near completion included the placement of new signs, many with interstate shields uncovered, along the Bypass and intersecting roadways. For example, these went up along US 74 East: Overhead signage at Business 74 exit which contains the future ramp to I-73 North/I-74 West. Signage was also updated heading west on US 74 approaching the unop...
Post a Comment
Read more