Leah’s First Hike: Sky Meadows State Park

First thing today, Leah and I went out to “my” farm – Bull Run Mountain Farm – to help glean the fields.  After we were done I had plans to take Leah to Shenandoah National Park for her 1st hike!  I had the perfect hike all picked out…but it’s the peak weekend for the fall leaves and everyone and their uncle was flocking to Shenandoah to see them.  Front Royal was all backed up and after sitting in traffic for awhile we finally got in sight of the turn off to Skyline Drive and I saw that ALL the cars were attempting to head into the park.  Insane.  We turned around and headed to Sky Meadows. I think Sky Meadows ended up being a better choice!

Sky Meadows was crowded, but it was manageable.  For some reason it’s not as popular as other places, so even on an extra super crowded day, it was manageable.  

It was close to 2 when we got there!  After got our admission paid and the receipt on the dashboard, we gathered up everything we’d need for lunch and hike.   We found a nice picnic table in the sun (it was chilly!) and had a quick lunch/snack before heading to the trail.

When hiking with a toddler one must remember that it’s not about the amount of ground covered or the speed with which we move, it’s all about the experience of being in the woods!

At first Leah had a hard time understanding the concept of “forward motion” – she kept running back and then running back to me and running back where we’d already been.  I thought this was going to be more difficult than I’d expected.  

Finally I redirected her to run to the sign and that was the end of the doubling back (one good thing about toddlers is that they are pretty easy to redirect – most of the time!).

Soon we needed to use some rock climbing skills:

These steps kept pulling off her boots, but she was determined to climb them herself!

Next we had to cross a bridge! I didn’t get a picture.  After that we crossed a wooden style  over a fence.  She went up by herself and wanted to go down by herself but there were two people waiting to climb over and I just picked her up!  Also didn’t get a picture!

We were now walking the edge of a big field.  The trail is wide grassy and goes straight uphill.  Leah took off running! :-) There were a lot of butterflies and when Leah saw one she’d point it out to me and then say: “How you doing?”. SO. FREAKING. CUTE.

We were having a lot of fun until we rounded a corner and saw this:

Those brown/black things in the middle are cows.  You can see them better here:

The cows were grazing in the field that we were hiking through.  This is why there is a fence that we had to climb over.  I’ve been to Sky Meadows several times and hiked this trail every time, but this is the 1st time I’ve see cows. 

Leah was very excited!  She was talking to the cows saying “MOOOOO” as we approached.  She’s quite knowledgeable about cows – knows what they say and that they eat grass.  She does however think they are green.  Gotta keep working on that!

When we got close I noticed several of the cows had stopped eating and were giving us the stink eye.

(Note that I DID NOT zoom in here…we were *that* close!)

It was then that I realized just how big these cows were. (They were huge)  They were giving me the evil eye and I was wondering what exactly I’d do to protect myself and Leah if these cow decided to charge.   There were LOTS of people hiking up the mountain and the cows had pretty much ignored them all, so I pressed on.  Leah at this point decided we were a bit too close to the cows and demanded to be carried!

We safely passed through the cows and continued upward.  I pulled out the trail map and started considering how to make our hike a loop so as to avoid going back through the cows!

Quickly though the cows were forgotten because she found a stick and a small hole to dig in!

Eventually I got her to move on but soon, she decided we needed to stop and smell the (dead) flowers:

When she finally declared that she was ready to proceed she did it drum major style, swinging her flower:

As we continued up the hill we encountered the inevitable:

A cow patty.  Leah demanded to know what it was – I simply explained that it was cow poop.  I don’t think “poop” was a known word until today!  I may get in trouble with Susan for expanding her vocabulary!

Soon she spied another inviting stand of dead flowers and wanted to stay and play! She played with them for 15 minutes!  I’m not even kidding! I kept asking if she was ready to move on and she’d say “No thanks!” or “No Way!”  so what was I do except take pictures!

While Leah was playing with the flowers two cows made their way from one group of cows to the other and they walked past us.  Leah looked up and saw them and said “Oh man!”!  :-)

I finally pulled her away from the flowers and we headed back down the hill. We safely navigated the cows again! They were still giving us the stink eye, but I picked Leah and hurried past! We didn’t make it to the view point, but we’d had a great time!

Leah was a bit cranky on the way back – she was in dire of need of a diaper change (Auntie Issa failed to pack an extra diaper in her backpack…grrr…we could have stayed out longer if I’d put just one in!) and I’m sure she was tired and hungry – a little milk helped us forge ahead!

By the time we were back to the bridge she was quite the happy camper!

At the end I decided I needed to document which trail she’d hiked on her 1st ever hike (we hiked the Piedmont Overlook Trail)

Then I asked her to go over and stand by the sign:

When we made it back to the parking lot I saw a cricket and pointed it out to Leah.  She watched it for a little while, then asked “How you doing?” She kept asking, I think she was annoyed by not getting an answer!  She studied the cricket enough to see how it was was hopping from place to place and she started following it, hopping along with it!  It was SOOOO cute!  I didn’t get it on video, you’ll just have to take my word for it!

You can kinda see the cricket…it’s the tiny black thing in from of Leah’s left foot. 

By the time we got close to the car every step was producing tears so I picked her up and she put her head on my shoulder, totally exhausted.  She did perk up once I changed her diaper though!

Overall I LOVED taking a walk in the woods with Leah!  Next time I attempt a hike with a toddler though I will bring a backpack to carry the kid in so we can hike further and I can get more exercise! I wouldn’t want her stuck in a backpack the whole time – it would just be nice to have options! I will also bring a diaper and a back up diaper!

Here are a few other pictures I took: