So going into this trip, I had told my wife that all I really hoped for was to see a bear in the wild. And if I could see one, than the rest of the trip didn't matter, because it would have been a success.
So we got to the southern entrance at 9 am. Right on time. I paid the ranger, pulled through the gate and about 50 yards in, this animal comes tumbling out of the weeds almost as if it had been thrown out there. As it hit the ground, it turned on all fours and looked at us in the car with a look of shock. It was a bear that was not quite a cub, but definitely a full grown bear. We made eye contact for what seemed like 90 minutes, then he turned and ran across the street into the weeds on the other side of the road. I was sure a mama bear was going to be right behind it, but no bear followed the cublet. I'm fairly certain the smile on my face was ear to ear. Just wish I would have been prepared to snap a picture.
We stopped at almost every overlook for the first 20 miles, taking pictures and reading plaques. It was cool. By the time we got to the spot where we had planned our first hike, the park had become packed with visitors. It felt more like being at a mall than the great outdoors. So we skipped pretty much all of the hikes (which was fine anyway because the car ride was killing my back).
We were behind schedule when we got to the exit for Luray Caverns but figured we could knock it out pretty quickly. As we neared the entrance, there was a line and the parking lot was packed. Now if you're like me, a packed parking lot there wouldn't have seemed that crazy. I went to some caverns near Denver and the parking lot was like a small little gravel parking lot. But this was like the size of an amusement park. I was not expecting that. We all looked at each other and I knew we were all thinking, "Screw this." None of us felt like standing in long lines after being in the car for the past 10 hours. So we headed back to Skyline Drive and finished the final stretch. It was cool, but probably didn't need to do the whole drive. I wouldn't say the trip was bad, but it wasn't my best family road trip. When we got back to Frederick, I learned that the Bennigan's had closed, which broke my heart even more. We ended up driving all the way back home on Saturday. So I pretty much drove from 6am until 9:30pm. Long day that didn't really produce the results I had hoped.
But I did see a bear. So the trip was a complete success.