A Long Drive to Breaks

I've wanted to see Breaks Interstate Park for years. I'd heard from family members that it was beautiful, and it's in my home state of Virginia. However, it's at the Kentucky border and about as far as we can go from home without leaving the state. Online directions vary but they estimate it takes about seven hours to get there. Originally I planned to spend a night at Claytor Lake, but they were booked up so I let Frank talk me into making the trip in one day.

We failed to get an early start because the alarm did not go off, plus we took an extra hour doing last-minute things. Then we made a stop to leave the dogs at the kennel, another stop for lunch, plus some brief stops, but it was the detour on Walker Mountain that cost us extra unplanned time. We did not reach the park until 9 PM! The desk clerk was just leaving and the restaurant was closing. Fortunately we had  some food in our picnic cooler. In the morning I learned that deep fog often settles in the park at night, so I'm glad we got there before that happened, as driving mountain roads at night is hard enough without the added challenge of fog.

The park was almost empty of tourists because school in that area had already started for the year. The park is fairly remote and most of the guests don't travel from as far away as we did.

Foggy Morning View

Afternoon View from the Restaurant