Exploring Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia | Maryland Heights Overlook + historic sights!

After a fun couple days eating classic West Virginian foods, chasing waterfalls, and exploring the Dolly Sods, we have moved across West Virginia to the town of Harper's Ferry. Harper's Ferry is the easternmost town in the state and is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. The town was an important site during the Civil War and it still has around a hundred historic structures to explore. But first we're doing a sunrise hike to the Maryland Heights overlook to see the town from above. As you can tell we're starting this morning's hike in the dark. It's about 6 a.m. We just got to the Harper's Ferry train station. We hear this is the best spot to park at to do this hike. You used to be able to hike on the other side of the water where the hike actually is but we hear that is no longer. So we parked here. We have about a 4.3 I think mile round trip hike to the Maryland Heights overlook and it's about a 1,000 feet of elevation gain. So let's go. I'm not gonna lie it's a little creepy right now hiking in the dark. It's very pitch black out and we're just using all trails to figure out where we need to go because you cannot really see anything right now. But the positive thing about hiking at sunrise is that it can only get lighter from here. This trail is actually extra cool because you get to walk on part of the Appalachian Trail. I've always, I've read a book about it and I've always kind of thought about doing it. Probably never gonna happen but pretty cool that we can say that we've been on it now. Also I believe we are in Maryland now. You cross over from West Virginia into Maryland to get the view of Harbors Ferry. As soon as you get on the actual Maryland Heights trail it is all uphill. All right we made it. Yeah this is way cooler than I thought it was gonna be. So it may not have been the epic sunrise we were hoping for but I've wanted to see this view for years ever since I first saw a photo of it so it's crazy to finally be seeing it with my own eyes. Yeah it's still pretty cool because the fog is kind of rolling in and out. It gives it a little more of a mystique kind of a thing. It's also cool because we're standing in Maryland and then we're looking back on West Virginia and then over there is Virginia. We hit up three states today by 6 30 a.m. Slept in Virginia, drove to West Virginia, hiked into Maryland. Kind of cool. The east coast is really cool. You don't get that as much on the west coast. And back down we go. Perks of sunrise. No one else was here. Part of the reason why we did this at sunrise was one to hopefully see really cool colors. That didn't happen but that's okay. The other reason is we hear this gets really really busy. We wanted to beat the crowds and I think we succeeded. We're just hoping it's not too busy on the way down. So this bridge we're walking on now is the same one we were walking on in the pitch black this morning when we said that we are currently walking on the Appalachian or as we've recently learned that we've been I guess saying it wrong and people from this part of the U.S. say Appalachian trail. And the views are much better when there's actual light outside. That's kind of the nice thing about sunrise hikes is it's a surprise when you're finishing the hike to see everything you couldn't see before. But this river is just gorgeous. There's these really cool stone structures just in the water that have formed trees on them and the mountains around. It's absolutely stunning. So when we get off this bridge we'll be back in the lower Harper's Ferry I think is what it's technically called. I'm so jazzed to be on the east coast to get all read about all the old buildings and all the stuff that happened here. I'm gonna really geek out on the on the history although read all the placards. For breakfast and coffee we came to a spot called Battlegrounds Bakery. It's located just one street up from the lower level of Harper's Ferry so you get a nice little Stairmaster workout on your way to breakfast. And everywhere at Harper's Ferry was either fancy food which wouldn't be open now and we're not really fancy food people anyway. Meh reviews. Or this place which had really good reviews and it's basically just sandwiches and coffee. Pretty simple stuff. I think baked goods as well. I got me the Potomac sandwich which is basically just a Cuban sandwich. I think it has like ham, pickle, mustard, cheese on gluten-free bread. And I got a yummy looking breakfast sandwich. This is the breakfast BLT. So there's egg on there, avocado, bacon, tomato, cheese, and you have several options for bread. You can do a sourdough which is what I got. You do a bagel, a croissant, wheat, and oh pumpernickel. So I got sourdough. Sounded good. And this sandwich looks freaking good. Excellent. It's no Miami Cubano but it is really good. We are so hungry from that hike and this is hitting the spot. So as we mentioned at the beginning Harper's Ferry is known for its role in the Civil War but it's also famous for John Brown's raid. So this was a guy right before the Civil War. He raided the armory right behind me for all the weapons in there and he was hoping to start a slave revolt that would grow south. This building is actually the only armory that escaped destruction from the Civil War and it's also been moved four times. This wasn't the original location. It's actually only 150 feet from where it was originally built. So this is where the armory originally sat. Now it's just 150 feet that way. Being in Harper's Ferry reminds me a little bit of when we were in St. Augustine, Florida earlier this year. All the buildings are so old and charming and the streets just feel like you've stepped back in time. You can walk down little alleys like we walked down to get to this spot and I'm not really a big like history buff. Like I don't really enjoy reading about history. Not even really so much listening or watching historical movies. Don't judge me. But I love being able to walk through history. So actually getting to see the little displays they have in these buildings of what things looked like and getting to just see the buildings and all of that. That's what gets me excited about history. So this is really cool. I think it's super cool. It kind of reminds me of when we were in Rome. You're like walking in the footsteps of Julius Caesar here. You're walking in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether, Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois. Pretty cool. One thing we've loved about Harper's Ferry is just how small and walkable it is. We parked at that train station this morning and we've just been walking all around all morning. There are a lot of steps though so keep that in mind. It's a pretty good workout. But now we are headed 300 yards to Jefferson Rock which should be a beautiful overlook over the area. This trail is also on the Appalachian Trail and also in Harper's Ferry is the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Harper's Ferry is kind of known as the psychological midpoint for hikers on the trail but the actual midpoint is just a few miles north of here. We made it to Jefferson Rock almost. It's just right there. We'll go check it out in a second but it's named Jefferson Rock because Thomas Jefferson visited around 1783 and he described the view from this spot. Well he wrote some really long paragraphs about how great it was but the one sentence that really stood out is that this scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic. So you'll notice that there's some pillars underneath the rock and I read and I'm going to read because it's a lot to remember that the uppermost slab of Jefferson Rock originally rested on a natural stone foundation so narrow that one could sway the rock with a gentle push and so the base kind of dwindled and became very unsafe so they installed these little pillars to safely keep it up there. You're not allowed to climb up there so don't even think about it. I just read a little bit more on the website and these pillars were installed sometime between 1855 and 1860. It doesn't say that they've been changed out so they might be original but that's really crazy. We think we have walked every square inch of Harper's Ferry now. Not only is the area super historic and it's just fun to walk around but the area surrounding is just super beautiful so if you're in the West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland area make sure you come check it out. We're actually about to go head to Virginia for the next week to spend some time with my best friend and her husband but then we will continue our West Virginia road trip and next up we're going to do something we've never done before and we are pretty terrified. Mr. 305, Mr. Worldwide. For some reason we just had the idea to start doing pistol squats. Yeah there was like a ledge over there and I was trying to do it but he keeps falling but she like popped off a real one that was impressive. Let me let me try to get another one. It's pretty impressive.