Heading north out of Callander we stopped briefly at the Trossachs Mills for a few shots of Hamish and Honey, the wooly highland cows.

A few miles down the road, and though my car registered the speed limit on the dashboard, I apparently exceeded it when I found myself pulled over by two standing police officers with a speed gun. Thankfully my US license and believable contrition meant I got off with a warning. I can only imagine the paperwork!

After that we (more slowly) made our way northwest, and as we climbed through the Glencoe Pass we started to see snow.

beautiful drive

Then all of a sudden, it was snowing on us. I mean, it really started to snow!

the three sisters and fields of boggy grass

After the beautiful Glencoe Pass it was on to Fort Williams where we stopped to have lunch. It was a bit hard to navigate around downtown but we eventually found a parking lot so we could stretch our legs. A quick amble around town showed us that most places were closed on Sunday afternoon, but we managed to find the Crofter Pub.  Eric opted for the tomato soup and ham/cheese toasty along with a half-pint of the tasty Celdonian Scotch ale. I had the bacon and cheese sub roll which was also good.

Time for hiking! We decided to make Steall Falls our hiking objective, so we took the Glen Nevis road out of town right into the park. The guide at the visitor’s center said that we would pass several parking spots along the way but don’t park until you get to the very end. Good advice as there was plenty of parking in the last lot.

gorgeous views on the hike to the falls

Steall Falls (An Steall Bàn) – Scotland’s second highest waterfall

The walk was a scenic 1.5 mile roundtrip with great views, lots of moss and water. A few extra falls on the way out too…

As we left the park and headed north we noticed quite a bit of snow accumulation. We even stopped off the A86 to build a mini snowman and have a brief snowball fight.

We continued along the road into the boundaries of Cairngorms National Park,  and shortly off the main road from Kingussie was our final stop at the Ruthven Barracks. I parked while Eric braved snow globe conditions to check out this piece of Scottish history.

Ruthven Barracks

After a full day of driving and hiking, we were ready to check in to the B&B and walk to dinner.