As if Breck and Iris weren’t busy enough with a whole kitchen remodel and full-time work, they still took me to places I’ve never been before, including Philadelphia, PA, which will be featured in an up-coming post. This post will focus on some of Breck & Iris’ favorite parks and waterfalls.

Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia

I agree with John Denver…West Virginia is almost heaven with it’s mountainous terrain covered in deep-forest, roaring rivers and waterfalls, and amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Blackwater Falls State Park is nestled in the West Virginia mountain tops. It has numerous walking, hiking, and biking paths with several picnic and camping areas. It is also a popular place to visit in the winter with ski lodge, over 30 cabins, multiple ski-runs, a sled-run, and Nordic center.

The park also includes Pendleton Lake and Falls. It’s a quaint little man-made lake where boat and bike rentals are available.

How Blackwater Falls got it’s name

Boardwalk down to one of the viewing areas

Walking down to closer viewing area

Breck, Mancha and I then took another little trail for a different view of the Falls (Mancha is such a good little hiker!)

After our picnic lunch we took another short walk to the Blue Ridge look-out point…

(Breck & Iris enjoying the views😉)

But seriously, the views of the Blue Ridge Mountains were pretty awesome! These pictures don’t quite capture the magnitude of it all!

If you look very closely you can see wind turbines, dotting the top of the mountains on the horizon.

Breck and I climbed down the rocks to get a closer view of the edge, it was also a nice shot of the viewing platform.

Again, the pictures don’t quite do it justice!

The last place we stopped in the Park was Falls of Elakala, Mancha was so excited to be hiking again that Breck could hardly keep up with her! Breck, Mancha and I hiked down to the bottom of the Falls but I stopped mid-way through not wanting to injure myself on the slippery rocks, but that did not stop Mancha from getting a closer look!

The pictures are not as clear as I had hoped because I had to zoom-in, but you can see how picturesque it was at the base of the Falls!

On the long drive home we were all craving ice cream, which isn’t easy to find in the West Virginia mountains, so Breck googled and found a mom/pop soft ice cream shop connected to a bowling alley. It was literally in the middle of nowhere!

The ice cream gave us all satisfying enough gut-aches, but it was definitely one of the most random (but beautiful) places I’ve ever eaten ice cream!

The evening before I flew out, Breck wanted to show me his favorite place ‘to chill’ on the Shenandoah River. The water was nice and warm as we waded up river, but it became a little treacherous for me due to the slippery rocks and strong current. It was all worth it, however, when we nested ourselves between the rocks for a relaxing, jacuzzi-tub experience. It was quite the zen moment…I just wish I had a more time to soak it all in!

Great Falls National Park, Virginia

On the way to the airport, Breck and Mancha took me on a little detour to see the Falls in Great Falls, Virginia. (I don’t love my close-up but I do love Mancha’s little smile in this picture😆) Anyway, like everything I had done and seen during my stay, it did not disappoint!! I’ll let the remainder of pictures speak for themselves…