Driving Southwest Scotland: Argyll Forest Park

Breathtaking.  Serene.  Rugged.  Even on a gray day, no amount of adjectives can describe the raw beauty that awaits visitors to Scotland's southwestern coast, where mountains and crystal clear glacier lakes sit waiting to be explored.  As we set out from Menstrie with friends Neil, Susan and daughter Ailish, we had no idea what we might see during our journey.

As we traveled through bucolic villages like Buclyvie, we passed stone cottages with gabled slate roofs, quaint chapels, flocks of black faced sheep grazing on rolling hills, standing Pagan stones, and forestry areas where timber cutting is dominant in the landscape.  Laybys on the winding roads offer safe opportunities for photgraphy.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful stops on our journey was high in the Argyll Forest Park.  Scottish people call it "The Rest and be Thankful" spot.  You've successfully made the climb high into the mountains, and it is the absolute perfect place for a picnic, winter or summer. 

As far as the eye could see, snow covered the landscape in an atypical display of winter weather.

And you know what that means, of course.  Time to make the snowballs!

Ailish got in the first throw, but we all joined in!

And then we had to push the van backwards out of the snow - we got stuck!