We drove into northern Virginia from Pennsylvania to arrive at the Shenandoah National Park. It was established during the Great Depression as one of the civil conservation corps projects. To capitalize on the popularity of the new motor cars, they made an amazing roadway that follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains for 105 miles. Within the park boundary are wonderful overlooks, hikes, waterfalls and mountain peaks. We spent almost a week exploring the park following Skyline Drive all the way.
On our first day, we drove the first 30 miles and stopped at nearly every overlook to oow and aah at the mountains and valleys. We did a short 2-mile hike up to Compton Peak summit and were rewarded with a great view. We camped just outside the park on that day in a town called Luray, home to the Luray Caverns which we also visited and will post about separately – as it deserves a dedicated post.
On our second day, we hiked up to the top of a mountain called Mary’s Rock for more amazing views from a rocky precipice. When we finished that hike, we decided to keep going and did another hike across the road to a mountain hut. We hiked over 8 miles that day and climbed about 1900 feet. We cooked a hearty meal of seafood pasta when we got back to our camper to recover.
On our third day, we moved our camper to one of the campgrounds in the park called Big Meadows. On our way there, we hiked to the top of the tallest peak in the park, Hawksbill at 4051 feet. Another fantastic view from the top! When we got to our campground, we decided to take another hike to see some waterfalls. We hiked over 11 miles that day, and our legs could definitely feel it!
On Day 4, we moved further south to another national park campground. The fall colors were really on display as we drove. On our way, we stopped and did a hike up Bearfence Mountain. It was only about 1.5 miles round trip, but included a bolder scramble along the ridge of the mountain to a nice 360 degree view. The scramble was kind of fun as you had to really crawl up some rocks and crevices to get to the top. The campground we stayed at was called Loft Mountain. This campground is at 3360 feet high and offered great views. It had an amphitheater with maybe the best background ever! And, the views of the sunset were pretty incredible.
We took it easy on Day 5 and enjoyed the campground. We woke up to two deer in our campsite, later we saw a 12-point buck in the nearby woods and we ended the day with another beautiful sunset.
On Day 6, we did a short hike to Blackrock Summit. The summit was covered in massive blocks of quartzite rock that you could scramble over to get magnificent views of two large valleys below. The rocks were formed from the seabed of an ancient ocean that predates the Appalachian mountains. When the mountains were formed, the rock was thrust into the sky to form large cliffs that eventually started to break off to create the boulder field. We left the Shenandoah park and continued onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, setting up camp about 30 miles in near a place called Montebello.
Leave a Reply