Leafing on Skyline

Wildflowers on Skyline Drive

 

As the leaves begin to change colors in my back yard, I thought to take a jaunt on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. The "leafers," as admirers of the fall color are known in these parts, will soon be coming in droves to take in the spectacular fall display in the mountains. On weekends Skyline Drive becomes almost impassable from the amount of traffic, so driving up on a weekday is the best way for us retirees to enjoy it fully!

 

Rock walls along Skyline Drive

Naturally, I took my watercolor painting kit with me hoping to find an appealing view. The morning was beautiful, and the colors, although not yet at their peak, still lovely. I looked around as I drove south, trying to find the best site for painting. I don't like to set up at the very exposed overlooks, since the sun is too bright and they tend to be windier--I prefer more sheltered spots with some shade. The most appealing colors seemed to be visible right from the middle of the road, where one couldn't pull off, so I continued on.

 

Fall color along the rocks.

 

Some twenty-odd miles south I stopped at the Elk Wallow rest stop, and seeing it was already past noon, decided to turn around to try to find a good place to eat my lunch and paint. I'd noticed a hillside covered with golden Ladyferns a few miles back on the drive down, and was able to find a place with a parking area there. I pulled in and walked around a bit, trying to decide where a good spot to paint might be.

 

Golden Ladyferns carpet the forest floor.

There was a trail that took off towards the west down into a wooded hollow, which looked unpromising. I turned around back towards the road, and saw that the same trail continued eastward on the other side. Here the trail rose up a slope, and one could see bits of sky showing through the trees beyond the hill. The trail curved gently up this hill, with the golden ferns carpeting the slopes--lovely! Here was my spot!

 

A hillside of golden ferns.

 

I walked back to my car to get my painting gear, jacket and lunch, and brought them to the spot. At an altitude of 3300 feet, it was chillier up here than in the valley below, good thing I'd brought my jacket. After eating my sandwich I got to work and the time just flew. Several hikers walked past me, and I chatted briefly with them. Around three in the afternoon, the sun started to fade and clouds moved in, a good time to stop painting. 

I had enough down on paper at that point, that the rest of the painting could be finished later at home. Time to pack and get back in my car. On the way home I stopped at a few overlooks to take more photos, and finished my painting at home the next day.

 

Hogback Mountain Overlook.

Ferns at Skyline in Fall, watercolor, 14" x 11"

I hope to get back up there to paint next week and see how the colors keep changing.

So Near and Yet so Far

Purple Fringed Orchid buds.

Last Saturday I went back to Skyline Drive for another try at the purple fringed orchid. After corresponding with the park botanist, I had narrowed my search to one area where I had looked before. The morning was gorgeous, clear and pleasantly cool; hikers, bikers, campers and all sorts of visitors were out enjoying it. I headed straight for my site without stopping at any of the overlooks, and got there around noon.

I put on a neon orange safety vest I'd taken on the advice of the botanist, who had warned me that the orchids grew very close to the road. I took only my camera as I started walking north, facing the oncoming traffic. It was obvious why I'd been warned--there was only a ditch perhaps 18" wide between a steep rock wall and the pavement, and blind curves. Water dripped from springs below the rock wall and flowed along the ditch into storm drains that took it under the road to continue flowing down the mountain side.

The vegetation along this stretch consisted of Virginia waterleaf, yellow daisies (hawkweed), saxifrage, violets, mosses, ferns, nothing very unusual. Then I looked up--about 6 or 7 feet above the ground on a ledge, I saw a small flower stalk with round lilac-pink buds--could this be it? The leaves were orchid-like, the overall size about right. There were a couple of similar plants near by, the buds not yet showing color. This had to be my orchid! I took a few shots with the zoom on my telephoto, but it was not enough to get any details of the plant. How could I get closer?

I continued walking by the side of the road, hoping to spot another orchid or two growing closer to the ground, or in the ditch. I walked all the way past the springs, and back. No, it seemed the orchids grew only on that particular rock. Why only there? Other than the moisture from the springs, I could see no other clues as to how it came to grow there. Most terrestrial orchids need mycorrhizal fungi to develop, which is why they are usually found in forests where these fungi grow on tree roots. Could these orchids have grown further up the wooded hill and have washed down onto the rock during a powerful storm? It was worth checking out.

I looked around for a likely place to climb up the steep bank and found a spot some twenty yards beyond the rocks. I pulled myself up with the help of low-hanging tree branches, taking care of where I stepped. The uneven rocky surface was carpeted with a thick layer of dry leaves, masking holes and other hazards (perhaps even snakes!), and I wasn't wearing hiking boots, only my beat-up garden shoes. The terrain didn't look very promising for orchids-- too dark and dry, with only a few saplings on the forest floor. I managed to pick my way towards the orchid rock, hoping to at least photograph from above. Sketching in situ would be impossible. It proved way too steep for me to get any closer, so I finally gave up and turned back.

On to Big Meadows for lunch. Afterwards, I decided to break in my new hiking boots on one of the easy trails there.  I came across a thicket of false hellebores (Veratum viride) on the Story of the Forest trail. The hellebore leaves bear a resemblance to the yellow lady's slipper orchid, but are huge, so at first I thought these might be orchids, but their small six-petaled green flowers gave them away as members of the lily family. Out west in the Rockies there is a plant with similar leaves that they call corn lily.

False hellebore (Veratum viride)

There was fly poison in bloom all along the drive--such an unappetizing name for a pretty flower--and here was some along this trail. My feet began to rebel against the new boots on the last mile, and the morning's adventure had tired me out more than I cared to admit. Much as I wanted to prolong  the lovely day, it was time to head back.

Fly poison (Amianthium muscaetoxicum)

I guess if I want to sketch the purple fringed orchid for my botanical project, I must find another population of them in a more accessible place. In the meantime, I may continue to look for other native orchids on Skyline Drive.

Winter Break

 

Herb looks over the Shenandoah Valley

Last Sunday was a rare, near-record warm winter day--almost 70 degrees! Such weather was too good to waste, so Herb and I drove up to Skyline Drive for the afternoon. We parked at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center lot (the visitor center was closed) and took the Fox Hollow Trail down a hill on the east side of the mountain. At the lower part of the trail there is an old cemetery and several large rock piles that must have been part of an old homestead before this became a national park. There were only two gravestones, and it was not until we saw the names on the them that we realized that the trail had been named after the Fox family's homestead, not the animal which we see infrequently around here and our hunt country residents love to chase.

It was so warm we shed our coats and wool scarves on the trek back up the hill. There was not much in the way of wildlife to observe--a family we passed told us they'd seen some woodpeckers up the hill, but by the time we got back up they were gone. I spotted some feathers and remains of a small woodpecker on the ground--a hawk must have made a meal of one of the birds a few days before, as the feathers on the muddy ground were matted.

Low clouds washed like an ocean around the mountain tops to the east when we started our hike but by the time we returned the skies were starting to clear. We decided to drive on a bit farther and stop at a few of the overlooks nearby to prolong the outing.

It was great fun to survey our new home here in the Shenandoah Valley from above. We lingered at Signal Knob Overlook watching the play of light and shadow across the landscape as the clouds opened up here and there. The sun lit parts of the valley casting the hills in sharp relief while other parts remained in shadow; a glider soared silently near Signal Knob. I wished I'd had my kit and the time to paint this drama, but the light changed so quickly, that would have been impossible anyway. It was enough for now to be able to enjoy and photograph it, perhaps for later use.

Blueridge Mountain Fog

Blueridge Mountain Fog, 11" x 14" oils on Gessobord

A rainy, gray Friday last week inspired me to paint this oil from photos taken along Skyline Drive one spring evening a couple of years ago as the fog enveloped the mountains. I'm not sure I've captured the subtle colors of the fog, or the density of the cloud vapor amid the greens of the young leaves in the dusk.

After the painting dried, it took on more of what I was looking for, a certain depth and mystery. It's now been framed and will be going to Gallery 1683 in Annapolis tomorrow, where it is priced at $450. Please stop by and see it in real life, it's unusual and beautiful.