Harpers Ferry, WV

We’ve seen a lot of places related to the American Revolution, but we also had a few Civil War related sites.  After we left Pennsylvania, we headed to West Virginia to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  I didn’t know much about what happened here nor about John Brown whose actions contributed to some of them, but now I do.  I've learned so much on this trip!

The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park has a Visitor Center where you can catch a free shuttle down to where the site is.  This is such a great idea for the busier NPS sites that have limited parking.  The shuttle runs every 15 minutes and takes about 10 minutes to get to where the structures and museums are.

We spent about 90 minutes there.  There are several buildings you can go inside and see exhibits for.  And there’s the Point where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet.  The Appalachian Trail also runs through here.  This was pretty exciting for me because I had watched a guy on Instagram earlier this year who documented his hike from Georgia to Maine.  It was so interesting to me, so I walked along part of the path that was the real live actual Appalachian Trail.  Part of it here goes up some rugged stone steps by St. Peter’s Catholic Church.  Just as I was heading down the steps (careful, careful, careful), the bell rang and startled me!  Thankfully it didn’t startle me enough to lose my footing, but it did make me think about how varied the terrain is all through the A.T. and how careful, careful, careful you have to be!

Here are a few pictures from our time at Harpers Ferry.

Once we left, we headed into Charles Town to go to a small restaurant called Homespun.  They had gotten great reviews from the gluten-free community for the limited menu.  I had chili that was really good (unlike some chili I had a few days later).  DH had the chili and a grilled cheese sandwich that he declared the best grilled cheese he’d ever had.  (It did look good, and it made me think of my grilled cheese I had at Henry’s Diner in Burlington, VT.)  They also locally source their ice cream from a nearby dairy, so we bought a pint to take with us for dessert at the hotel.

We stayed in Ranson, WV, which is right next to Charles Town and situated at the top of the highway that takes you down to Front Royal, VA, where you can access the northern terminus of the Skyline Drive.  That’s right, folks, we’re about to spend a couple of days at Shenandoah National Park!  Check out our next blog entry to read about our time there and see some pictures.

~ Cindy D.