with love and squalor

Harpers Ferry

During the summer it’s hard to find parking anywhere near the town of Harpers Ferry. In the winter it’s hard to find another person wandering the streets here, and you feel like you’re wandering an outdoor history museum - after museum hours. The Shenandoah River rushes and the train comes through the old trestles about every hour. The steps are carved from the stone the town’s built on and nearly impossible to use without heavy reliance on handrails. Narrow, cobblestone alleys lead to pre-Civil War ruins, and a somewhat serious climb to the top of the town leads you to Jefferson’s Rock - where Thomas Jefferson stood in 1783 and deemed the scene “worth a voyage across the Atlantic.”