Exploring Blackwater Falls State Park

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday so I drove back home to spend the day with her. We decided to go to Blackwater Falls State Park for the second time together, the first time being last winter. As we drove further and further out west towards the park the leaves became more and more vibrant! 

So my mom was explaining to me that in order to have really vibrant fall colors you either need a cold snap or just good, cold weather. That's why the leaves are always so impressive in New England, the Adirondaks, West Virginia and the Smokies. In Shenandoah there really needs to be a good cold snap to get the colors changing. This year it's been oh SO slow because of how warm it's been. Luckily for us, out in West Virginia the colors were amazing and we finally got a good dose of fall foliage. (Side note: my friend at Blue Ridge Imagery is out there now camping for a few days. His Instagram is amazing so follow him if you want some more fall foliage pictures)

We started at Blackwater Falls and did the short hike down to the waterfall before heading down the road to Lindy Point. Lindy Point is another short trail out to a cliff edge and provides amazing views of the Blackwater Canyon. You can even see the river rushing below! After that the plan was to hike out to Table Rock but for some reason my Google Maps was just screwing up and it was saying that to get to the trailhead I had to drive like an hour away (an hour away in the opposite direction of home and it took us 2 hours 45 minute to get there- um no thanks!). So we ended up heading home. Two hours later I finally got some cell service so I went back to look at the map and of course if we had just driven to where I thought the trailhead was we would've found it and been able to do the hike! That makes the second time I've been in that park and screwed up hiking plans. But that's okay because next spring I will be heading back out there to finally get my plans right!

I hope everyone is having a relaxing fall and has had some time to get out and enjoy some of the beautiful weather and fall colors!