Fairy Stone State Park, Philpott's Dam, Jacks Creek Covered Bridge, Blue Ridge Parkway

We spent the 1st week of May at Fairystone and the surrounding area.  I feel really connected to southwest Virginia  because my parents families are from areas close by.  I also just love the hills.  The smell of the air and the feel of the atmosphere just feel like family. 

 This is the cabin we stayed in.  It was beautiful.  Without any wifi, cell service, phones, TV, etc. It really felt like we were away from the world.

Unfortunately, we were there at a time that swimming was not open.  Though, if I went back, I'd go at the same time.  Not swimming was a fine trade for the peace of a low popularity week! 

The kids named these fairy pools.

 Hunting fair stones was neat.  We rand into a local man and his grandson who were kind enough to help us find and learn about the fairy stones.

 Philpotts dam is an interesting place.  You should check out some of the history of the area.

http://www.angelfire.com/folk/goblintown_mill/Fayerdale/Fayerdale.html

http://www.sovanow.com/index.php?/news/article/mecklenburg_county_meets_the_government_men/

This is the lower side of the dam

The kids were very excited to see this guy catch a rainbow trout right out of the dam bottom.

We had a great hike to the Fairystone Lake dam. It was up and down and down right beautiful.  Along the way there was great conversation and I taught the kids about some of the wild edibles we saw.  It was mostly wood sorrel and violets, but I also saw a few very interesting plants. You can see a little more about those on my other blog. Me and Botany

The boys were fascinated to study the creatures that were hanging around the dam.

 We got ALOT of rain that week.  It had it's own appeal.  For example, we got to watch a waterfall right outside the living room window on the stairs from the parking spot.

water exploration.

 This is the view of Fairystone lake from outside cabin 25, a few doors down from us.

 This little shack was on the Blue Ridge parkway

Another beautiful blue ridge parkway view

Making Smores.  Mom isn't really that good at making fire! 

The view from our screened in porch

This image may bother some.  Elias found an already deceased lizard and decided to perform a necropsy. Cause of death remains unknown. (but there was a good biology lesson in here)