Labor Day in Shenandoah

I spent two nights in Shenandoah National Park this over Labor Day Weekend. Matthew’s Arm continues to be a solid campground that’s easy to get first-come first-served sites.

After setting up my hammock, I set off down Matthew’s Arm trail towards Overall Run Falls. I’ve done this hike before and remember it being brutal. Labor Day was really hot two years ago and I wasn’t used to hiking in places that aren’t flat. Overall Run has a nice wading pool and small waterfall before the trail comes to the main event. It’s the largest waterfall in the park at 93 feet, and incredibly difficult to get a nice photo. You can supposedly hike down to the base of the falls but I haven’t found that trail yet.

After the falls I ended up hiking back to camp and waiting out a thunderstorm in my hammock. I did my usual sunset driving tour and stopped at a few random overlooks. I really like this photo. The color was just perfect and the light was so soft. I stole Thomas Heaton’s favorite phrase and said “absolutely stunnin’” to myself. This image continues to be a favorite even when I come back to this blog post draft over a month later.

After sunset I made my way down to Big Meadows with the intent on taking a bucket list photo. It’s been over a year since I wanted to take a photo of the Big Meadows sign with the Milky Way in the background. Everything was supposed to be fine. My app said the clouds would clear out, the weather was cool and crisp without too much humidity.

And it was nearly perfect. I am thrilled with the results. The image below is a composite of two photos – one of the sign and one of the stars. The composite is mainly for focus stacking purposes because it is difficult to focus one something that is 15 feet from you and on something that is an infinite distance from you.