Humpback Rocks farm museum on the Blue Ridge Parkway offers glimpse back in time

Humpback Rocks Visitor Center and Farm Museum is a great stop for people driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Located at milepost 5.8 just south of Skyline Drive, visitors can get a feel for life as it was in the 19^th century by walking the mountain farm trail which is open year-round.

The National Park Service has assembled actual buildings from nearby locations to create the homestead, which consists of an original log cabin and several outbuildings. The self-guided walking trail provides signs explaining the setting. The farm museum shows how mountain people used the abundant resources around them to be self sufficient.

Actual farming takes place at the mountain homestead in season, when interpreters are on site in period costumes demonstrating local crafts and skills.

The Visitor Center and Hiking Trails

Humpback Rocks Visitor Center offers exhibits and books about the area as well as gifts and crafts. To get there, visitors can take Interstate 64 or U.S. Route 250 between Charlottesville and Waynesboro.

Humpback Mountain is named for an outcrop of rocks near its peak of 3,080 feet. A short distance south of the visitor center is a trail where tourists can view geology and flora in the area or hike a longer trail to the rocks, which takes about 40 minutes. Hikers who reach the summit can see in all directions, and the Appalachian Trail is nearby.

Manatees in Florida

My daughters Susan and Anne arrived in Sarasota County, Florida today to visit Grandma and Uncle Andrew. They visited the jetty park in Venice and what did they see right off the bat? A manatee! Susan snapped a picture and emailed it. She wrote: "It was just one feeding on rock algae for about 30 minutes, then it swam out and came back with two friends. I was about 15' away from them when I took that picture.  It was super cool!!!!!"

James River in Powhatan County

The James River attracks a lot of boaters in the Richmond, Virginia area. Here is a shot from Watkins Landing in Powhatan County looking west (upstream).

Landmark lighthouse beckons visitors to historic Cape Henry at Virginia Beach

The new Cape Henry lighthouse (1881) overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay



The first lighthouse built by the new United States government in 1792 today beckons visitors to the shores of Cape Henry in north Virginia Beach. It is here, at the junction of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, where the first settlers landed on their way to founding Jamestown in 1607. And it is here that a crucial battle in the Revolutionary War was fought.

The Cape Henry lighthouses – there are two of them, the second one built in 1881 – are located on the Fort Story army base and are accessible to the public. Visitors must first pass through a security gate to be admitted to the historic grounds where the two lighthouses, a memorial cross, and a statue of Admiral Comte deGrasse describe the site’s importance to the birth of a nation.

Cape Henry lighthouses

Virginia deeded the site to the new federal government in 1789 specifically for building a lighthouse, and George Washington and Alexander Hamilton both played a role. Hamilton arranged the contract for the stone octagonal structure along with a keeper’s residence, and Washington ordered the applications for the lighthouse’s first keeper.

Confederate troops intentionally damaged Cape Henry’s lighthouse during the Civil War; Union troops repaired it. An inspection report in 1872 recommended the lighthouse be closed. It wasn’t until 1881 that the new black and white checkered lighthouse was built. Today the original lighthouse is a registered National Historic Landmark managed by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

Memorials

A granite cross on Cape Henry memorializes the landing spot of the early English settlers, who planted a wooden cross in thanks for their safe passage across the ocean. Nearby is a statute of the French commander who engaged the British in the Battle of the Capes, blocking them from Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown which helped end the American Revolution. A three-way interpretative panel pulls together the lighthouses, the landing and the battle for visitors.

Fort Story is located at 583 Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach. The lighthouses are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the end of October, and from 10 to 4 between November 1 and March 15. The site is closed for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Admission is $4 for adults and $3 for children 3-12.

Wildflowers thrive in Indian summer

Wildflowers seem to be everywhere! As we enjoy the Indian summer days, the wildflowers dot the countryside and beckon us to take country drives.

Farmer's fields in the fall

It's getting to be that time of year when farmers' fields take on a look of the season - fall season that is. Here is a scene in Bertrand, Virginia where the Corrotoman and Rappahannock Rivers meet. That's where the old wharf used to be before the hurricane of 1933 took it out.

Walking country roads as the foliage changes

There's nothing like taking your dogs on a walk down a country road when the weather turns cooler. This picture was taken in the Valle Crucis area of western North Carolina about 15 or so miles from the Tennesse border. The dogs are Blue on the left and Odessa on the right with Susan Winston holding the leashes in the middle.