A year in Brussels here.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Harpers Ferry





We visited an old historic town Sunday called Harpers Ferry. It is at the fork of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. The town is within Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and most of the buildings in town are preserved as museums. This used to be a large gun manufacturing and pulp town and therefore switch hands a lot during the Civil War. Most talk and information signs around town are about all the glorious glorious battles that took place here. The most famous person from the town is John Brown, an insurgent slave abolitionist.




There are a couple great hikes from the town that get you quite high up for some good views of the rolling hills behind Harpers Ferry. For the first time when approaching a trail system that is designated as strenuous, they were right to call it that. It was a very steep and rocky trail (PDF). From here there is also whitewater rafting and kayaking. We discussed this before going but decided it would be too cold, it is late October. But no one told Virginia, it is still reaching high 20s most days.



We drove to Harpers Ferry, but you can get there by bike on the W & OD trail from DC (about 110km) or by train (Amtrac). The drive to Harpers Ferry (we took the scenic route) passes through wine country. We went by quite a few wineries. We will have to make a trip out of that some other time.

1 Comments:

Blogger Beverly Ann Lehman said...

Wow, it looks beautiful! I love that area. I am happy to hear that you are exploring it!

10/26/2007 6:09 AM  

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