Cedar Creek & Belle Grove NHP / Catoctin Mountain Park

Brandywine, WV to Lancaster, PA | Moorefield, WV | Hawk Recreation Area | Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historic Park | Catoctin Mountain Park | October 2023

We now had 3 days left before Curtis’ next assignment, and thanks to a restful night and warm showers at Brandywine Lake Campground, we were refreshed and ready to have a few more fun days of travel while slowly moving East. On the first of these three days, we knew we needed to find reception for Curtis to call in to a meeting and get some work done, so we found a park in Moorefield, WV along the river to hang out in while he worked. Van life has made us way too comfortable with loitering around parks for hours at a time.

When we were confident that we didn’t need cell signal anymore, we drove about an hour East to tonight’s campground, a free dispersed site called Hawk Recreation Area. When we arrived, we were pleased to find that there were plenty of sites open, they were nicely spread out, and somehow we still had cell reception out here! We enjoyed a quiet night here, and will save this campground in the back of our minds as a great spot for road trips to the East coast (even though the free part might be changing soon).

On our last full day on the road, our plan was to make it about halfway between where we were at the VA/WV border and Lancaster, PA. There wasn’t a whole lot of camping options, but we found a spot in a paid campground in Maryland that looked suitable for our needs. Our rough itinerary for the day was to make a stop about halfway for lunch and a walk in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, one we had enjoyed visiting 6 years ago. However, while we were driving North on I-81, we saw signs for another national park site that we hadn’t heard of before, so we changed our plans and followed the signs into Middletown, and to Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Park.

After a quick stop at the visitor center (in a strip mall of all places), we quickly drove over to the Belle Grove Plantation, We arrived at the park just as a ranger program was starting, so we quietly joined the group and listened to the ranger talk for the next hour about the history in this area.

Curtis: We were in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, a very wide and fertile plain between Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Mountains (which is worth noting, is NOT part of Shenandoah National Park, but is instead a long mountain along the WV/VA border, Reddish Knob is its highest point). Early American settlers, and the natives they displaced, knew of the fertility of the valley, and it soon became a bread basket for Virginia, Maryland, and the Mid-Atlantic, with plantations like Belle Grove being the norm by the middle of the 19th century. When the Civil War broke out, the corn and wheat grown in the valley became critical to keep the Army of Northern Virginia fed. The valley, which is part of the larger Great Appalachian Valley, also provided an easy access for the South into Pennsylvania, or for the North into central Virginia. And so, repeatedly throughout the war, the valley was used and fought over, never as the primary theater but always as a side show to the war happening in Virginia. In 1862, Stonewall Jackson gained much acclaim by defending the valley from a superior force.

In 1864, the valley was again raided by the North to destroy critical food supplies, which prompted the besieged Lee to dispatch General Jubal Early to clear the valley, which Early did with almost as much skill as Jackson had done two years earlier. Then Early carried the war into Maryland, which prompted Grant to send even more forces into the Valley, this time under General Sheridan. The campaign came to a dramatic conclusion when, after being pursued by Sheridan and his Union forces, General Early made a surprise dawn attack upon the Union camp, putting them in retreat. But, before the Confederacy could complete the rout, General Sheridan, who had been away from camp, returned, rallied, and turned the tide of battle, and instead it was Early who was routed and forced to retreat, opening up the rest of the valley to the Union.

This battle, which occurred just in front of the Belle Grove plantation home along Coker Creek, along with Sherman’s simultaneous capture of Atlanta and March to the Sea, were key contributors towards Lincoln’s re-election and the valley remained in Union hands for the last year of the war.

All of this (and more) was described to us by the ranger, who had built a map of the region using everyday materials. It was so enjoyable that even after the ranger program ended, we stayed to chat with the ranger some more, then sat in the shade and had lunch. While looking at our route to our campground for the evening, we saw that the part of the highway that we were planning on driving through Harpers Ferry was closed, so it was a good thing we stopped here instead. We packed up and did a short driving tour through the park, though it wasn’t quite what we had expected, following roads through neighborhoods, so we gave up and got back on the road.

Jess: Our campground for the evening was in Catoctin Mountain Park, which is another National Park administered site that we hadn’t heard of before looking for camping in this area. That evening, we drove right to the campsite to relax and get some work done. The campground was mostly empty tonight, and had cell signal and hot showers. We went for a couple walks around the campground loop and enjoyed one last meal made in the van for the next few weeks.

The next morning, we started our day with driving to a trailhead and going for two short hikes. We parked at the Hog Rock parking area, then first went South on the trail to Hog Rock Vista. The trail was wide and not too rocky, and since we finished this hike relatively fast we went North on the trail from the parking area to the Blue Ridge Summit overlook. It was pretty cloudy this morning so there wasn’t much of a view, but the fog and the autumn leaves made both trails beautiful.

Finally, we loaded up and set off on the last leg of our drive, going 2 hours East to our destination of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We gave the van a good deep clean, and settled in to our hotel for the next 3 weeks.