After finding our campsite and backing in, we hopped outside and then the kids and I hopped straight back in again as a different, smaller bear came around behind Bessie and crossed the road to a tree on the other side.
He then grabbed a hold of the tree with his front paws and quickly lifted his back paws to gain purchase, then using front, back, front, back, had climbed several metres up into the tree in just seconds.
From his vantage point, Nath managed to capture an image of him as he started his climb.
The boys and I came back outside to watch him tearing at the branches high up and gorging himself on acorns.
We know he was a boy because a ranger passed by and explained he was one of a pair of two-year-old brothers who roamed the area in addition to the mother, father and three new babies.
He stayed up there feasting for the remaining hours of daylight but was gone the next morning when we checked.
Further south in the Park, we hiked the Dark Hollow Falls Trail (2.5km return), a pleasant out-and-back path mostly following a creek, replete with Autumn foliage and with a waterfall reward at the base of the valley.
The bear's climb was definitely a highlight of our two-day drive through Shenandoah which follows a ridgeline offering vistas of valleys and neighbouring mountain ridges and ends at the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
