Spring has finally come to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Shenandoah National Park makes the brilliance of the season and the glory of a mountain wilderness available to all.
Sunday we visited Dark Hollow Falls, a 70 foot seasonal cascade; a torrent during the rainy days of spring and fall that often slows to a trickle in the dog days of summer. We've been very dry the last few years, but Spring 2009 has seen heavy rains so we knew the falls would be at their best.
We'll head on down the trail towards the falls after the jump. But first, this was Wildflower Weekend in the park, the time each year when the Park Service estimates the blooms will peak. A small sampling:
Dark Hollow Falls is the most accessible major waterfall in Shenandoah National Park. The trail to the falls is less than a mile each way, although there's a 440' (134m) elevation change over that distance. The Park Service guide warns that some find the ascent back out from the falls hard; to us the trail, while steep, didn't seem difficult. An inexperienced hiker in reasonable shape should be able to make this trek.
As we stood at the trailhead, we met the small stream that, growing as it flowed, would blossom into Dark Hollow Falls. We joined the waters in their eager descent.
"When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come." Leonardo da Vinci
The babble and gurgle of the flowing water accompanied us on our journey. The trail closely tracked the path of the creek as we both made our way down to the falls. We usually keep a good pace on our hikes, but today we took our time, stopping and sitting on rocks, just reveling in the sights and the sounds.
"What is harder than rock, or softer than water? Yet soft water hollows out hard rock. Persevere." Ovid
Every time I stopped to take a picture we'd pause for a moment and just listen to the water's song. Gentle at first, picking up energy as water entered from the surrounding land, adding to the power and motion.
"We can't help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water...Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, shamans, everyone hears the intelligent sound and moves with thirst to meet it." Jeladuddin Rumi (1207-1273)
As even more small creeks and streams flowed in, soon what had been a small bubbling stream became a torrent of small rapids and falls.
"Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall." Fulton J. Sheen
Then, a turn of the corner and the sound of the falls hit our ears even before the sight of the falls-top came to our eyes. Crashing and splashing at that point, powerful and very unlike the softer, more soothing sounds we'd heard earlier in our hike.
"A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself." Laura Gilpin
As we descended the steep 70 foot path alongside the falls, that gurgling, splashing sound urged us downward, even when the falls themselves were out of sight. Then, at the foot of the trail, we turned and looked up.
Dark Hollow Falls, Shenandoah National Park
"The sound of water in nature is absolutely spiritual to me." A friend