Grayson Highlights

The last few posts to this blog have centered around my recent family trip to the Grayson Highlands State Park. My sister-in-law Lori Lipkin and brother-in-law Craig Setzer arranged the whole thing and I was glad that we were able to participate in the festivities.  We had a blast especially with the bike ride on the VA Creeper trail.   I like the discussions we are having about making this trip an annual event.  It is only about a 4 hour drive from Raleigh to the state park.  I must say this state park has the cleanest bath houses I have ever seen in any camp ground. 

I finally had a chance to put all the images from the trip on the trianglephotoprints.com web site.   

This slideshow below showcases my favorite images from the trip.  Please place your mouse over the slideshow to see it’s added features like the thumbnail option, gallery link to the images, and full screen display.  

This slideshow requires the Adobe flash player.

If you are having issues viewing the above  Steve Picks slide show,  please try this link directly from the trianglephotoprints.com web site.   Do not just take my word for it,  please feel free to browse all the galleries from this trip.   Let me know what you think.  Did I pick the highlights or did you find some images that need to be included in this slideshow?

Thanks for stopping by!!  See ya soon!

Creeper trail, Raspberry, and independence.

As mentioned in my previous post,  we went camping in Virginia this past weekend.  One of the things we did was a 17+ mile mountain bike trail called the Creeper trail.   To be honest I was a little scared about this adventure.  It has been several years since I rode a bike.  What if I could not finish ? What about the kids?  etc… 

Well, there were 14 of us in our group that either had a bike or rented one.  The plan was to rent a trailer to haul the two kids behind a bike for the ride.  I was able to talk my brother-in-law Mike who is a more experienced biker to pull the trailer on the ride.   Our group ranged in ages from 3 -60+ so if my  9 year-old nephew and my 60+ mother-in-law can do this trail,  I better suck it up and finish the ride.   The good news that the trail is for the most part a down hill ride.  Everyone was able to finish this very scenic and worthwhile ride. I highly recommend this adventure to anyone.  You rent(or bring) a bike from the shop at the top of the hill and purchase a shuttle ticket that brings you back to the shop when you are finished with the trail.  So there is no uphill biking or walking.

 

There is just something about Savannah’s confidence and playfulness  in this shot that I love.  Savannah was playing with these two old bike tires that were replaced on one of the bikes before we went on the trip.   She was strutting around them full of energy just like you would expect from a 3 year after they were pulled in a bike trailer for almost 18 miles.  

What ever happened to the “raspberry” ?  I remember when we were kids it was used all the time as a response to someone proliferating some sort of falsehood.  Well, next I hear someone performing such an act, I will definitely think of this picture and maybe even pull the “raspberry”  out again for good measure. 

3 year independent child with energy + state park with hiking trails = this shot.  This shot was taken in Massie Gap at end of  a hike.   

More from Grayson Highlands to come!   Till next time !

Wild Ponies couldn’t drag me away!

Over this past weekend, we went camping at the western Virginia  Grayson Highlands State Park.   It had been several years since Jackie and I had gone camping.  This was the first time we took the girls camping.   My sister-in-law Lori booked all of us the group camp site in the campground that resides in this beautiful piece of mountain heaven.  We are already discussing making camping at this park an annual event.

About a mile from campground in the park is Massie Gap.  Wild ponies are known hang out there.   Here are just a few shots of the ponies while I go through the rest of the images this week.   I am sure these will not be the only images from the Grayson Highlands trip that you will see on this blog.   So stay tuned!

This flexible pony took care of an itch.

This pony was  helping out his friend by cleaning his/her mane.  

I love this shot of my baby holding a baby and fearlessly petting one of the wild ponies.

Sophia is having her turn.

Mommy pony and three babies: one pony, one human, and one plastic. Good thing the baby did not think the plastic one was food.  It sure does look like he is eyeing it though.

Again, things need to be kept even.  Sophia is taking her turn.