Day Trip to Harpers Ferry

During the week, we wake Geek Girl up between 7:15 and 7:30 am and it takes an hour of constant parental harassment to get her fed, changed, and to school on time. However, sometimes on the weekend she'll wake up on her own, cheerfully, at 7 am (unless we have plans and want her to wake up early--then she sleeps like the dead while we grumble).

Yesterday she woke up at 7 am, so we decided to delay our plans to go to the National Gallery of Art and go on a day trip. And amazingly, by 9:15 am, we were on the road, even after our usual Sunday morning pancake breakfast.

Last year we purchased a National Parks Annual Pass and it's nice because we can use it for admission at Great Falls National Park, Manassas National Battle Field, and so many other places, including Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. It took us just under 90 minutes to get there and we started first at the Visitors Center and then caught the shuttle bus down to the lower town.

After walking along the river and looking at goose footprints, we got hungry, so we stopped for lunch and a picture.


We then crossed the footbridge over the Potomac River and in doing so were hiking on both the C&O Canal Towpath and the Appalachian Trail. We walked for a bit and then returned to Harpers Ferry to admire the joining of the Potomac River on the left and the Shenandoah River on the right.


Geek Girl was tired from the walk, so we sat to rest and take some silly pictures.



We had one more stop before heading home and that was to hike up hill to Jefferson Rock. Apparently, Thomas Jefferson found the view from this rock quite impressive.

Here's a picture of all the Geeks in front of a pretty church on the way up the hill.


A view of the rock as we get closer. The sandstone pillars were placed in the 1850s to save the uppermost slab.


Geek Girl and the information sign.


And the view downstream from near the rock.