This is the first sight one gets of Glass house after cresting the steep driveway. Note the two entry doors. The porch behind the cabin is screened in, and faces down Fort Valley. The cabin is only about 100 yds off of the road, so there is some road noise, but it's hard to see the road or the vehicles on it, even in the wintertime. There is a basement door below the porch visible here, where the overseer keeps maintenance items, as well as the woodcutting and "pioneer" tools. The cabin has a living area, a kitchen, a bathroom and one bedroom. The bedroom has single width bunks for four, and the living area has bunks for four more. There are also two cots. The middle window shown here is to the bathroom, and the window on the right is to the bedroom.

This is the main living area, taken from one of the top bunks. Note the wood heater in the foreground; the kitchen is around the corner to the left. We had four adults and two small children with us, and the cabin never seemed cramped, except when our one year old screamed for half an hour before finally conking out the first night. Glass house was VERY clean, as far as cabins go, and having electricity and running water made it seem less like roughing it and more like we were borrowing someone's house for the weekend. We used the woodstove for cooking some of our meals, just because it's more fun that way. The pictures on the far wall are of Jewell Glass, who built this cabin in 1950. The door to the right goes to the porch.

This is the porch. It is completely screened in, and the only way to get to it is through the cabin, so it's a great place to put the kids and let them play without having to worry about them wandering off. The view is fantastic, too. As you can see, we slept on the porch, even though it was late November, our first night was only in the mid 50's, and I even had to get up in the middle of the night and take off my polypro top because I was too warm. Some of the supplied sleeping matresses are quite thin, but since we only had four adults, we all got to use at least two. Unfortunately, some inconsiderate previous users had smoked heavily in the cabin, so just about everything reeked of cigarette smoke, which made it difficult to enjoy sleeping on the matresses.

All in all, though, we had an enjoyable two days, spending one of them driving around the area, shopping and visiting nearby Luray Caverns, which was fascinating. Glass house is a good place to go with children without having to worry about them or bother with cooking over a fire or hauling water. There's even a refrigerator! The small amount of hiking that we did wasn't particularly remarkable, except that I met an armed man out deer hunting who suggested I get an orange hat. Not being much for blaze orange, we found other things to do. BTW, don't bring marshmallows to roast - there's not really any place to do it.