VA Shenandoah National Park: Big Meadows Ramble

The Big Meadow - wetlands, heath barrens, grassland

We waded into Big Meadow from the far site of the first CCC camp to be built in what would be become Shenandoah National Park, where the outlines of the mess hall, camp office, flower gardens, and bunkhouses are staked out by four corner posts. We'd come around from Skyline Drive walking the shoulders of the meadow on a mowed path that led to a far tree line. The Byrd Visitor Center looked tiny in the distance with all its traffic and noise. Walking waist deep into the heathlands, we were accompanied by the calls of Meadow Larks, Field Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, and Tree Swallows.

 Huckleberry

We were also immersed in a sea of Bumblebees, their humming vibrated through vast stretches of Highbush Blueberry and Huckleberry. In the distance, a team of USGS bee surveyors worked another heath patch collecting specimens that would measure the diversity of Bombus species here. Red Admirals and Skippers floated from blossom to blossom and Eastern-tailed Blues drifted across the narrow path at our feet. A White-tailed Deer bounded clear across the bowl of the meadow and sent Amos into a tizzy. 

Highbush Blueberry

Amos about to tell the world he sees a White-tailed Deer

USGS survey team

The mystery of whyy the Big Meadow is here at all is a question not easily answered. Environmental historians and geographers agree that it is a cultural artifact that predates European settlement and may even be a clue about the area's prehistoric past. Despite partial clearing to make way for the large CCC camp and its associated grounds, the meadow has returned and is under the care of National Park Service stewardship. When I asked a botanist about their survey, she explained that they happen every few years to compare species divesrity over time. "It's a mystery to us even now," she said, "why the fens and the rare plants they contain? Why the heath barrens where nothing else can grow? And why this site is so resilient, even in the face of measurable impact of climate change?"

Interupted Fern, Osmunda claytoniana

Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis

When we inquired about walking through the meadow at the Byrd Visitor Center, the ranger at the desk assured us that we need not worry about following an established trail, that game trails made by deer intertwine throughout and that we can simply find one and off we go. I have to admit, as a "stay on the trail" advocate, the idea of offically sanctioned meandering intrigued me.  While we were wading through fern and heath, we watched another intrepid group try to navigate the game trail system only to give u0p when the trail they were on simply disappeared. They went out the way they came in. When our trail did the same, we stood for a few minutes to find an  older, over-grown trail that we followed carefully through prickly Blackberry patches that drew some blood. We emerged onto a better deer trail, triumphant that we had crossed the entire meadow using deer-only paths. 

Mound-builder Ants

Fern field at the woods edge

Grasslands rim the bowl of Big Meadow

Big Meadow gave us almost two hours of constant wonder-wandering, the kind of slow probing into the wild heart of a highland wilderness that reminded us of what it is to be in awe. Though we followed no established human trails while the come-and-go game trails allowed us to experience immersion in an ecosystem (actually - several) without feeling compartmentalized by the edges of a human-made space.  

Virginia Pine growing prostate - injury or wind or deer browse?

Laura wading through branbles on a very faint trail

I will always love the wild open places. I dream of prairies and grasslands and meadows so vast that to travel through them is made possible by the bison who laid the trail over thousands of years. Sometimes I plot and plan how and when to return to the Mid-West and Plains and reunite with these spaces and environments which I last visited while doing my doctoral research many years ago. So this wonderful wandering fit the bill for me - and for Laura, who said it was one of the best "hikes" we'd taken so far in our many years exploring the Shenandoah. 

Emerging from the wild to the tamed meadow.

"... because while wandering down the path of wonder, I briefly escape the world of separation and enter the world of unity."

Hermann Hesse