History can seem boring when presented the wrong way. Someone talking at you about a moment in time you don't really care about makes it feel like you want to run screaming. Seeing history, however? Being able to touch it, and feel it--now that's a different story. It becomes real, and leaps out of the dredges of someone's mind or imagination to become something fascinating.
This is the Old Roman Road in the Yorkshire Dales. This particular section is called Cam High Road. The views in the Yorkshire Dales are hard to beat. But combine a hike with an ancient road that Romans used to walk on? That's an incredible feeling.
It's mostly gravel, although in some places the gravel has worn down to nothing. When it rains, I imagine it's very muddy. But as far as paths and trails go in the Yorkshire Dales, this one is easy to walk. The hills roll off on either side, and you just walk to keep going to see more. The stone fences lined the entire walk.
As we walked this path, the only two people we ran into were also American. They were from out west, but I don't remember which state. We all greeted each other, and then paused when we realized the accents were not from England. They were doing the coast to coast hike. It wasn't far from here we had lunch, before we turned off the road to head up a hill and through the pastures back to our cottage.
But for a moment, we were walking on a road that was well traveled by traders and soldiers many hundreds of years ago. And that was a great bonus to an incredible hike with amazing views.