The night before, we pulled into this campground quite late, so we were not able to get a picture of the sign or of our campground. So, here it is in all of its glory! The only problem with the campground is that the roads are awful. You ever pull a 35 foot trailer over a road with potholes? Not fun!!! Then coming down from our camp site, the trailer scraped bottom. Most of the campgrounds on the Blue Ridge Parkway are located in small towns which are usually several miles off the Parkway. Montebello Camping & Fish Resort was no exception.


We resumed driving the Blue Ridge Parkway not too far from the northern starting point (we were headed south). Again, the turnouts revealed panoramic views of the Shenandoah Valley and the Piedmont Valley. Some of the valleys are named for the nationality of the people who settled there, such as Irish Creek Valley. Soon it was time for lunch, so we drove off the Parkway to a little town named "Buena Vista". By the way, it is pronounced "bew-na vista" ~ we found out that we have been mispronouncing it all these year! Who knew??? Anyway, before lunch we stopped at the Visitors Center for Bew-na Vista....we found out that there was a natural rock bridge not far away. So after lunch, we headed down south towards Natural Bridge of Virginia.


The first thing we saw was a large hotel built in the early 1900's. It started when Thomas Jefferson bought the land, including the bridge in the 1700's. He built a 2 room log cabin with one room reserved for guests. As the fame of Natural Bridge spread more and more people came to see the wonder. In 1833, Jefferson's heirs sold the land and the new owners erected the Forest Inn. It had been expanded until it was destroyed by fire in 1963. This new hotel was finished in 1964. Across the highway is the Visitors Center. There is a museum, gift shop, snack shop and of course, the ranger desk. We purchased our tickets and struck out to walk to the bridge. We (Sharon, Roxie and David) walked through the gate, down the steps and gave the ranger our tickets. We walked about a quarter of a mile to the bridge. What a wonder when we first saw it!

I have never seen such a large rock arch. Normally, the arches look like they couldn't support anything large. However, US Highway 11 passed over the arch, with a max weight restriction of 11 tons. One interesting fact about the bridge is that George Washington is known to have scaled one of the walls and cut his initials into the rock (they have put a white rectangle around his initials so we could spot them.


The natural bridge isn't the only thing in this gorge. The Monacan Indian Nation lived in this area when settlers came to Jamestowne in 1607. A small village has been reconstructed here with people in authentic dress. They have built a longhouse and wigwam. They have skins spread out that the Monocan would trade to white men who came later.


At the end of the trail is Lace Falls. There were stone benches for hikers to rest before returning to the Visitors Center. Roxie had gotten so warm, that she went wading. Then David got involved to really cool her off!


The final point of interest that we saw was a saltpeter cave. You can read for yourself what saltpeter is ~ I had no idea! We decided to head to our campground a little early today. We drove up to Middle Creek Campground in Buchanan, VA. For a treat after dinner, we went over to the campground and bought two scoops of ice cream and sherbet. From there, we turned in for the night.