Secret Vistas

Riding Out Election Day in a Mountain Campground

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BALDFACE ROCK OVERLOOK, Va. – It is election day all across America and the big question is whether the Republicans will take over control of the U.S. Senate. But since I am not now living and working in Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas or one of the…

More Autumn Color from the Virginia Mountains

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Secret Vistas – A Photo Essay – By Glynn Wilson – SOMEWHERE IN THE MOUNTAINS, Va. — We continued our journey on Wednesday by leaving the Shenandoah National Park and coming out at the little town of Elkton. We headed back north to continue the loop around Washington, D.C. and found a beautiful private campground…

Camping Along the Appalachian Trail at Big Meadows

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SECRET VISTAS – By Glynn Wilson – BIG MEADOWS CAMPGROUND, Va. — We pulled into this largest campground in the Shenandoah National Park on Sunday afternoon late, and without knowing it, picked a campsite right on the Appalachian Trail. The view Monday morning at dawn was stunning, and we found out from hikers it was…

Early Autumn Color in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

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Secret Vistas – A Photo Essay – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH VALLEY, Va. — The autumn color is not quite at its peak in these famous mountains with the legendary Shenandoah River running through them. But the scene should come to fruition in the next three weeks. This is the result of day one…

Autumn Arrives in Style in a Maryland Park

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Secret Vistas – A Photo Essay – By Glynn Wilson – GREENBELT, Md. — After a couple of days of drizzling rain and clouds — and a month in the Washington, D.C. area waiting for fall color to hit the trees — autumn arrived in style on Friday in Greenbelt Park, National Park Service land…

Hiking and Camping at Patapsco Valley State Park, Maryland

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – SOMEWHERE IN THE WOODS NORTH OF D.C., Md. — We made it back to the Patapsco Valley State Park this afternoon in time to explore further along the Campground Loop Trail to the River Ridge Trail. Brought the Nikon along and snapped a few pics. May post more…

Autumn Foliage Color Report for Virginia

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables – Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – As of September 29, the Virginia Department of Forestry was still reporting that while the calendar may say it’s fall, Virginia’s forests are still mostly green. “Nature’s…

Autumn Foliage Color Season in Maryland

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – It’s that time of year again, time for the leaves on the trees to start changing colors in one of the most beautiful annual displays in nature. Get outside and enjoy. You might be amazed to find few other people taking advantage of some of these places. It’s…

Heading for the Woods to Live Simply

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“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I wanted to live deep and suck out all the…

Camper Van Living Week Two: Wildlife in Greenbelt Park

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Shhh. Don’t tell anybody. Just between you and I we wouldn’t want to spoil the secret of this place. But it is a fact that in the distance of a short train ride from the nation’s capital, you can be camping in a federal campground…

Camper Van Living Week One

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – It is a relief to hang out by a pond in the mountains of Virginia on an old apple orchard. At this point in life, cool nights are of more value than hot beaches. Thus begins a new adventure in cheap living in a Dodge…

Experiencing the Blue Ridge Parkway in Summer

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY, Va. — The National Park Service calls this “America’s Favorite Drive,” but if you go by the traffic, U.S. Highways 81 and 66 to Washington, D.C. might better fit the bill. After camping in the mountains of Virginia for a couple of nights in an…

Contemplating Hunger and Nature in the Jefferson National Forest

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Secret Vistas By Glynn Wilson MARION, Va. – Listening to a babbling brook and watching the snow flakes gently fall in one of Mother Nature’s most beautiful acts, I am pondering the legend of the hungry mother who inspired the name of this place along the Hungry Mother Creek. As the story goes, back during…