​Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, United States

Summary

Airport Rating n/a
Reception of locals ****
Cost: ££££

• One of 63 national parks across the United States and the closest one to Washington DC
• Beautiful drive across mountainous landscapes and areas of pure wilderness
• Requires a car, but no issues as a Sikh getting there or visiting the different parts of the national park.
• Main Sights: Skyline Drive, Hawksbill Mountain, Stony Man Trail, various lookout points

The real United States

There is a lot we can say about the United States - good and bad. But there is one thing that the US does better than most other countries, and that is national parks. National parks are protected areas of land set aside by a government to preserve natural landscapes, wildlife, and cultural features. The idea behind them is to keep large parts of nature in a near-natural state, safeguarding ecosystems from development or exploitation. 

The concept of the national park was born in the US with the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 and the beauty is that national parks across the country vary widely in character. Some are mountainous regions such as Rocky Mountain National Park or Denali National Park, others protect desert landscapes like Death Valley or Arches, and some safeguard tropical environments such as Hawai‘i Volcanoes. Others, like Everglades National Park, are set aside primarily for ecological rather than scenic reasons, preserving vital wetlands and wildlife habitats.

In fact, national parks cover over 100,000 square miles of space in the United States, making the 63 national parks larger than the entire United Kingdom (although the UK makes up for it with many landscapes in a smaller environment). For me, the strongest advantage the US has over other countries as a visitor is the number and variety of national parks.

​Shenandoah National Park is one of the most visited national parks in the country and it's located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, about 75 miles west of Washington DC. The park runs in a long, narrow strip for about 105 miles from the town of Front Royal in the north to Waynesboro in the south.

At its heart lies the Skyline Drive, a scenic road that follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains through the entire length of the park. The drive is about 105 miles long, with 75 designated overlooks offering panoramic views of the Shenandoah Valley to the west and the rolling Piedmont region to the east. The Skyline Drive is special, no doubt about it.

The road was built in the 1930s and is two lanes wide and speed-limited to 35 miles per hour, encouraging a slow and steady pace which keeps animals safe and also means drivers are safe as they are constantly looking at the views. Travelling its full length without stopping takes around three hours, but most people stop along the way which means you could easily spend a weekend here.

The Four Entrances to the Skyline Drive

The drive from DC to Front Royal (which is where I entered the Skyline Drive) is around an hour and a half. Front Royal is a small town, very Christian, and it seemed to have quite a student vibe when I walked through the main street. I stopped off to get some breakfast and there were quite a few signs in a couple of the shops quoting Bible verses. People seemed friendly enough and I didn't feel like I had any issues as a Sikh.

The entrance to the Skyline Drive (and therefore the park) is well signposted, and there is small station where you pay $30 per vehicle (about £22) for a week-long pass. There are four official access points along Skyline Drive depending on where you are coming from: Front Royal, Thornton Gap, Swift Run Gap, and Rockfish Gap. These entrances are spaced roughly 25 to 30 miles apart along the park’s 105-mile length.

The Front Royal Entrance Station sits at the northern end of the park and is the most commonly used and busiest access point for visitors arriving from DC. As soon as I entered, the road immediately began a small ascent into the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the road winding upwards to the first viewpoints such as Dickey Ridge Overlook. The Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, located about five miles beyond the entrance, is like an orientation stop with exhibits, restrooms, and maps. 

Roughly 32 miles south along Skyline Drive lies the Thornton Gap Entrance Station which divides the northern and central sections of the park. Thornton Gap is particularly convenient for reaching some of the most popular hikes like Stony Man and Marys Rock. Because of its central location, many people use it as a starting point for day hikes rather than to drive the full length of Skyline Drive. Travelling south from Front Royal, this entrance takes about 45 minutes to reach by car following the road.

A further 27 miles south of Thornton Gap is the Swift Run Gap Entrance which sits near the park’s mid-section, allowing access to the Big Meadows area, one of the park’s main hubs. Big Meadows is home to the Byrd Visitor Center, a large meadow with grazing deer, and the Big Meadows Lodge and campground. This is the furthest that I drove during my day trip. At the southern end of the park is the Rockfish Gap Entrance Station where Skyline Drive meets the Blue Ridge Parkway, another scenic drive. 

About halfway between Thornton Gap and Swift Run Gap is the Skyland Resort, which, like the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, provides an opportunity to buy souvenirs, but also has a large restaurant that overlooks the park as well as some accommodation. It was a nice place to stop later in the afternoon. The food was good, slightly overpriced but not unreasonably so, and I had arrived during blackberry season so there was a real big theme around blackberries.   

Lookouts and Hikes

Back to the park itself, the ​Skyline Drive runs the full length of Shenandoah National Park, and along it 75 designated lookouts and many different trailheads, and rest areas. Most of these are scenic pull-offs that are no more than stepping out of the car and taking a look, while others are starting points for some of the best hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

The northern section of the park features some of the first major overlooks when entering from Front Royal. Range View Overlook, around Milepost 17, provides a wide panorama of the Shenandoah Valley and is one of the earliest pull-offs that feels properly mountainous after the gradual climb. It was the first real opportunity to see the beauty of the national park and it didn't disappoint for me. Some stops are busier than others, so you might find yourself with a lookout point all to yourself, or you might find cars parked up right behind each other. Luckily during my visit no stop was very busy and I often found the looks out points completely empty.

Not far beyond it, Jewell Hollow Overlook and Marys Rock Tunnel (near Milepost 32) offer classic views framed by rock formations and sweeping ridges. The tunnel itself, blasted through solid mountain in the 1930s, is one of the park’s most recognisable features and often photographed by drivers passing through its curved stone arch.

The stop offs are nice, and I lost count of how many stop offs I did throughout the day. I had a list of about 10 I wanted to see and got to see all of them, and there were a few others where I would drive, pull up, but not even leave the car and still get a fantastic view.

In addition to the lookout points, there are also hikes you can do at each entrance, some are quite short, others are longer. During my day trip to the park, I did three hikes including two of the highest points in the park and they were both enjoyable.

The first was the Stony Man Trail which begins just north of Skyland Resort near Milepost 41. This circular trail is about 1.6 miles long and climbs gradually to one of Shenandoah’s highest peaks at 4,011 feet. The climb was fairly easy and passed through mostly hardwood forest before it opened out onto a rocky summit ledge with expansive views west toward the Shenandoah Valley. It was a nice place to stop, relax, take a few photos, and see the absolute beauty of the park. Perhaps my favourite part wasn't just seeing the views of the natural horizon but actually seeing the ridge where the Skyline Drive cut through the national park.

I also did the Little Stony Man Trail nearby which was also a very short climb with excellent views over the park. This trail had a slightly less travelled path and was more winding, but it was relatively quick and easy and the views were excellent.

Further south, near Milepost 45.5, is Hawksbill Mountain, the highest point in Shenandoah National Park at 4,051 feet and the second of the two hikes that I did. This was one later in the day and I was rushing to get up by sunset, and down before it got pitch black (which I succeeded doing). There are two main trails lead to the summit: the Hawksbill Summit Trail and the Lower Hawksbill Trail. The shorter and steeper option, beginning at the Hawksbill Gap parking area, is about 1.7 miles round-trip, while the longer route from the lower trailhead covers about 2.9 miles. I took the shorter steeper option to try and save on time and it worked out well as I was up and down in about 90 minutes. 

At the top there is a full 360-degree view, taking in the Shenandoah Valley, Massanutten Mountain, and the distant ridges to the south. I managed to get to the summit just before sunset and it was an incredible experience as I was lucky enough to get very good visibility. 

I stayed deep into the night after the sun had set and then visited a few more lookout points in the dark. It's a completely different experience. During the day you feel like you are in this huge open green expanse, but during the night there is an eerie silence punctuated by the sounds of insects and animals (including black bears) and it feels completely different.

​It's still beautiful but it's also haunting. With little light pollution, you can see the stars clearly, but without a torch or a phone light, visibility is near zero and so as soon as I took a few steps away from the car it was, at first, a little unnerving, but as I settled in I appreciated how this experience was just as incredible but in a completely different way. During the night some of the larger animals also come out so I saw some deer, racoons, but unfortunately I didn't see any black bears.

Would I recommend visiting Shenandoah National Park?

I don't think you've scratched the surface of the United States until you visit a national park, and I hope this is the first of several more. It's the one area where the US has a comparative advantage over almost any other country in the world - the size, number, and diversity of national parks. Shenandoah is an easy introduction for those visiting or living in the eastern coast and I enjoyed my time.

For me, a day was about right but I could have stayed longer. After you've seen your 20th lookout point and done a couple of hikes, it can feel slightly "samey" but that said, experiencing the park during the day and night provided a couple of very different experiences. If you're in an around the area, and you have the time to spare, it's well worth a visit and perhaps the next time I visit, I'd like to do an overnight stay.