A Trip to the Shenandoah National Park, Part X

After the ranger concluded the educational tour of the Big Meadows, we separated and I headed back to the blueberry patches. I saw this bright pink blueberry and took a picture of it, because I was in awe of its beautiful color. However, the photo does not do its justice.

A picture of my husband in the Big Meadows.

For the next half hour, I was head-down picking my free, organic blueberries. Originally I was ambitious and wanted to collect two gallons of them. But after realizing how much work that was, we settled for just one plastic cup. We actually got more than one cup worth of berries, because I was also eating them as I picked them. They were really sweet.

The wild blueberries are much smaller than those sold in the grocery store. That makes me feel even more amazed that they can feed the animals on the Big Meadows, plus the tourists like us.

We finally headed home after the plastic cup was full. We stopped by an outlook and took some final pictures.

It was a wonderful trip and I hated to have to say goodbye to the mountains. I was very glad that we participated in those fun ranger programs. In the past, we were pretty much doing things on our own, and didn't know what we were missing. I can't wait for our daughter Kyleigh to grow up and participate in their Junior Ranger program. I hope she loves nature and animals as much as I do.