Gettysburg National Military Park — Harpers Ferry — Shenandoah National Park

At the Gettysburg Visitors’ Center we started with a film that depicted the three days of fighting at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). I had tears in my eyes just imagining the enormity of what was going on at that time. Then we walked through the Soldiers’ National Cemetery and took the auto tour, ending at Little Round Top.

The drive from Gettysburg to Harper’s Ferry was about an hour. What a cute little town! History tidbit: On an October evening in 1859, Abolitionist John Brown and his small band raided the arsenal with the goal of staging a rebellion to help free slaves. It didn’t take long for them to be overcome, and Brown was found guilty of treason and murder and was executed December 2, 1859.

We finally arrived at the Shenandoah Skyline Drive (mile 0-41). Right at the start we saw two bears crossing the road, and we were hopeful that we would see many more; little did we know that they would be the only ones we saw during our entire stay in the park. We had a picnic dinner at an outlook, then finished our day of driving at a cabin at Skyland. It was super cute!