Photo-of-the-Week #88 The View From Coopers Mountain, Hampshire County, WV January 2013

 I've passed over Coopers Mountain many times over the past 28 years. It never occurred to me to take a photo until this past Friday as I was driving back to my base camp in West Virginia. It was a beautiful winter day. Coopers Mountain is 1,617 feet above sea level at this point. As mountains go, Coopers is not all that high, but this location holds some memories.

All the mountains in the photo are part of the Appalachians. This photo was taken looking east from the west side of the numerous valleys. On the other side of the mountains to the east is the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Meandering through the valleys below is the Cacapon River, an 81 mile long contributing tributary to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Watershed. When I head to Virginia, I go down through the valley and cross the Cacapon River in the small town of Capon Bridge on U.S. Rt. 50. Rt.50 extends from Ocean City, Maryland in the east all the way across the country to West Sacramento, California (until 1972 it extended to San Francisco) in the west.

When I first started coming to this location there was an old restaurant and bar at this site. Several years ago the land was purchased and a church was built at the highest point of the mountain right off Rt. 50. The exact spot I took this shot from in the late afternoon. 25 years ago I would to drive the 22 miles from my home near Winchester, Virginia to park in the old restaurant parking lot, contemplate the view and think. This is only one of many beautiful and inspiring views throughout the Appalachian Mountains.