Treasure Forever: Raindrops and Waterfalls
On April 18th, ten Georgetown students set out to explore Shenandoah National Park. Shea and I, the National Park Trust College Ambassadors at Georgetown University, had planned a full weekend: two big hikes, a campfire, s’mores, and tent camping at Big Meadows campground. The excitement in the van was palpable as we entered the Shenandoah and began cruising along Skyline Drive. Students craned their necks to take in the view, and we stopped at a lookout spot twenty minutes from our trailhead. One participant, an international student from Poland, told me that his mom had always wanted to visit the Shenandoah, and asked me to take a picture of him in front of the vista.
After our brief stop at the lookout, we hit the trail. We hiked first to Dark Hollow Falls, a beautiful 70-foot waterfall, and stopped for lunch there. Sitting in the woods, with the waterfall’s rush underscoring our conversations, I felt at peace. Some students clambered between rocks downstream of the falls, while others sat back and enjoyed the sunlight filtering through the leaves.
We took on the next leg of our adventure: the hike to Rose Falls. Along the trail, students bonded and talked about other experiences they’d had outdoors, swapped funny stories, and mused about their dreams for the future. I even taught a few students about edible plants, botany, and what to do if you encounter a bear, while Shea shared other valuable outdoor knowledge, including teaching the students Leave No Trace. The hike back up to the car was uphill, so we took our time, and by the end, we felt accomplished and ready for dinner.
That night at Big Meadows Campground, we cooked pesto pasta and set up our tents. It was then that we encountered the first disruption to our plans—there was a fire ban in the park! Rather than having a campfire, we ate cold marshmallows and stared at the stars.
The next morning, we woke to rain pouring down outside our tent. We were disappointed—first, no fire; now, the rain would take away the beautiful vista we had planned to see on our second hike. Shea quickly hatched a plan: we would take a slow morning and treat this day as a break from busy campus life. We offered our participants a choice to either stick it out and have fun in the rain or have a slower breakfast and appreciate the natural beauty of our campsite. They chose to have a slow morning, cuddling back down into their sleeping bags. Eventually, the rain slowed, and we made oatmeal for everyone’s breakfast. On our way out of the park, we stopped at the visitors center so one of our participants could get a stamp for their national parks passport. At our last stop, an ice cream shop, we discussed highlights from the trip. Things hadn’t gone as we expected—we hadn’t had a fire, and we’d only done one hike—but everyone felt rested and refreshed, having connected with nature and formed new friendships with each other. Dropping off the participants was a bittersweet moment. Our last ever hike as Park Trust ambassadors was over. Being ambassadors had been such an essential part of our college experience, and working with the National Park Trust had taught us new skills and allowed us to lead trips we never would have been able to otherwise. We knew this trip would be a memory we would treasure forever.
