Blue Ridge Mountains

I have to say that my favorite day of our trip out East was the day we drove the sky line drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The scenery was awesome. The mountains aren't huge, but the views are breathtaking.

From single flowers....

...to fields of color...the beauty of God's creations surrounded us.

My handsome guys enjoyed the views.

My mom did too. The air was cool and fresh...such a nice change from the heat of the previous days.

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. Flowers, mountains...all it needs to be perfect is a horse in there somewhere. :-)

Even the thistles looked pretty with the blue hills for a background.

Eric and Brian and I took a 1.5 mile hike to see a waterfall. My mom and Billy decided to hang out at the visitor center and rest. The hike down was pretty easy.

There were warning signs along the way...like this one....ahhhhhh.......as well as the red faced hikers slowly making their way back to the head of the trail....

The water falls were nice, but not as grand as I was thinking they'd be.

I think it's been dry there too. Then it was time to start the trek back up the mountain...

...oh dear...it didn't seem like we had walked that far. It didn't seem like the hill was that steep. We had to rest a few times along the way. I think that all my panting and wheezing caught the attention of this little beauty grazing in the woods.

Eventually we were back in the van enjoying the mountain views. Views to our left....

....views to our right. The ridge that held the skyline drive was fairly narrow....

...but it wasn't one of those drives where you feel like you are going to fall off the side of the mountain at every turn.

If you are ever in Virginia, I'd recommend taking the time to do the sky line drive.

It's a special place. Parts of it reminded me of home.

Billy...look at the pretty scenery.....but mom, I'm reading....sigh.

He did take the time to look out the windows at all of the overlooks. It would have to be a pretty good book to be more compelling than views like this...

Ahhhh.