Hanging Rock

Saturday afternoon brought us to the Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory in Monroe County, West Virginia. We often joke about how we know nothing about the surrounding towns and counties to Blacksburg (I call it, sweepingly, The Country), and how we almost never leave town. So this was an intrepid effort!

You hike for about a mile. It's relatively gentle, though a bit rocky and steep in places.

You get to go through golden woods.

Ponder your existence and compare it to things such as trees and sky.

You get occasional glimpses of the valley below, and sometimes you can sense how high up you are. But mostly your view is confined to the grove of trees you are in.

So it's good to have beautiful people with you, within that grove, to look at.

You marvel at strange sights along the way,

...and you trek up and keep the faith that you'll be able to see what there is to see, soon.

And then, suddenly...

...you can.

Ok, I recognize that was an excessive amount of photography. I couldn't help it. It's 360 degrees of glorious.

We saw few raptors. There was a bald eagle, a few turkey hawks, and I think another kind of hawk. Some ravens. But apparently you want cooler, windier weather for better viewing. Those we saw were so high we needed the binoculars at the observatory to make them into birds and not wheeling specks.

Oh, but it was so worth it.

This guy wanted to scale some rocks with me. This control-loving, cowardly Mama actually let him! In a controlled way. I just wouldn't let him use the huge rock slope as a slide. Would you?

It's so hard to know where parenting becomes coddling.

Adele cried the last 10 minutes up the mountain, but once we got up here? She was charged with joy.

This little house on the top of the world was so cozy. I wanted to do yoga there.

 

Miles now cherishes a desire to live here. Or in some other tiny house on a mountain in West Virginia. He's not too picky. 

When evening came, we shoved off down the mountain again. It made for a long day.  

Again: it was worth it.