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Day trip to Shenandoah National Park (1 Viewer)

TheIronSheik

TheIronSheik

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Another one of these threads where I ask for everyone's help.  Always appreciate the advice in here.

I've always heard so much about this place and wanted to go check it out.  Kind of the same thing as the Niagara trip, where we'd drive down Friday night, spend the night and come back Saturday evening or Sunday morning.  So really, the actual trip would be just for one day.  But as I looked into this place, I realized I had no idea this place was so huge.  And it became apparent that I had no idea where to begin or what I was even looking for.

The goal would be to see some cool overlooks on the Skyline Drive.  Maybe hike a couple spots.  But other than that, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for.  Anyone been and have advice of where to go, stay, or places to see and things to do?

TIA

 
I live near there. I guess it would help if you were a little more specific about what you would like to do.

Are you planning on camping, hotel, AirBnB....?

 
TheIronSheik said:
Another one of these threads where I ask for everyone's help.  Always appreciate the advice in here.

I've always heard so much about this place and wanted to go check it out.  Kind of the same thing as the Niagara trip, where we'd drive down Friday night, spend the night and come back Saturday evening or Sunday morning.  So really, the actual trip would be just for one day.  But as I looked into this place, I realized I had no idea this place was so huge.  And it became apparent that I had no idea where to begin or what I was even looking for.

The goal would be to see some cool overlooks on the Skyline Drive.  Maybe hike a couple spots.  But other than that, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for.  Anyone been and have advice of where to go, stay, or places to see and things to do?

TIA
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Skyline is beautiful, hiking spots you're better off looking at AllTrails or a similar app to see the types of trails you want to take on.  There are some easier trails still end in some scenic spots, waterfalls, etc.  I would also highly recommend the Luray Caverns.  https://luraycaverns.com/

 
Luray is a popular place to stay.

You could probably drive down to the Harry Byrd Visitor Center, stopping at some overlooks on the way. Some popular short trails by that visitor center -- waterfall near there that is an easy hike.

Do you have kids or not?  If so, age?  I think a lot of it comes down to how strenuous hike you want.  I'm sure you will get some good suggestions here, but you could probably even tell the ranger in the visitor center how long of a hike you are looking for, and they could probably give you some recommendations too.

 
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You should check out the Luray Caverns.  Really impressive stuff.

If you have kids, the Massanutten Resort is not too far away and they have a fantastic indoor/outdoor water park.

Finally, Monticello isn’t too far away, and that’s an excellent visit if you’re a history guy.

 
Don Quixote said:
Luray is a popular place to stay.

You could probably drive down to the Harry Byrd Visitor Center, stopping at some overlooks on the way. Some popular short trails by that visitor center -- waterfall near there that is an easy hike.

Do you have kids or not?  If so, age?  I think a lot of it comes down to how strenuous hike you want.  I'm sure you will get some good suggestions here, but you could probably even tell the ranger in the visitor center how long of a hike you are looking for, and they could probably give you some recommendations too.
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It would be me, my wife, daughter and friend ages 15/16.  

We like to hike and do some decent trails.  I wouldn't want it to be too strenuous, I guess, though, since I'll be bookending the day of hiking with long car rides.

 
An amazing hike in the area is Old Rag.  Amazing views.  Skyline drive itself it pretty sweet with great views right from the road.  As others mentioned, Luray caverns is worth the stop.  DM me if you have any specific questions.

 
matttyl said:
An amazing hike in the area is Old Rag.  Amazing views.  Skyline drive itself it pretty sweet with great views right from the road.  As others mentioned, Luray caverns is worth the stop.  DM me if you have any specific questions.
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So with Skyline Drive, is it worth it to do the whole thing?  Or is there a section that we should focus on?  My initial thought was to drive to the southern part, get a hotel, then drive up it on Saturday.  But didn't know if the whole thing was worth it or what spots to stop at and look around.

 
TheIronSheik said:
So with Skyline Drive, is it worth it to do the whole thing?  Or is there a section that we should focus on?  My initial thought was to drive to the southern part, get a hotel, then drive up it on Saturday.  But didn't know if the whole thing was worth it or what spots to stop at and look around.
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It's over 100 miles long, and generally has a 35 mph speed limit, which you rarely even hit with the views and frequent stops.  Where are you coming from?

 
matttyl said:
Yeah, spend a night somewhere.  Either do a drive down and stay in C-ville after driving it and then do something else that next morning - or do the opposite. 
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If we just did half of it, would we miss out on too much by just doing the northern part?

 
matttyl said:
Nope.  And let me know if you do, and are up for a brewery (or winery) stop or two. 
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Appreciate the offer, but it's a family trip and won't really be doing any drinking since we'll be driving.  But thank you.  Where's a good starting point to start the trek north on Skyline Drive?  And is there anything important to stop and check out on SD?  Having never been, I don't even know what to expect.  Do we just drive until we see a spot to pull off and look around?  Are the "good" spots marked so we don't just drive by them like doofuses? 

 
TheIronSheik said:
Appreciate the offer, but it's a family trip and won't really be doing any drinking since we'll be driving.  But thank you.  Where's a good starting point to start the trek north on Skyline Drive?  And is there anything important to stop and check out on SD?  Having never been, I don't even know what to expect.  Do we just drive until we see a spot to pull off and look around?  Are the "good" spots marked so we don't just drive by them like doofuses? 
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The whole thing is good.  Charlottesville to Front Royal is a great drive.  Stops are pretty well marked, and it's not hugely traveled, either (mainly due to the initial cost and 35 mph limit). 

 
matttyl said:
The whole thing is good.  Charlottesville to Front Royal is a great drive.  Stops are pretty well marked, and it's not hugely traveled, either (mainly due to the initial cost and 35 mph limit). 
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Can you unpack this?  Is it a tollway?

 
If you already have a national park annual pass (interagency pass), you won't have to pay anything extra.

I think driving the whole thing in a day is doable, depending on how many stops you want to make. Stay in either Charlottesville or Staunton on Friday night and enter the southern entrance in the morning after breakfast. Total drive time to the northern end is probably about 2.5 hours, so that can leave you a good 6.5 hours to stop at overlooks, visitor centers, and some short hikes. Start at 9:00 and be out of the northern end by 6:00. I'd then suggest having dinner at Spelunkers in Front Royal. Nothing fancy, but a good burger place.

There are like 75 overlooks, so don't get into the habit of stopping at too many early on. There's always another one nearby. I have no specific knowledge about which overlooks are the best; maybe someone else does.

Agree with the suggestion to look up trails on AllTrails or to talk to a ranger at a Visitors Center. Just tell them something like "We're looking for short, somewhat challenging hikes with some great views. Climbing over some rocks would be cool and maybe seeing a few waterfalls." Or whatever it is you're interested in.

You'll lose cell signal a GPS at times while on Skyline Drive and not all the trailheads have the best marking so pick up a park map.

 
Gary Coal Man said:
You should check out the Luray Caverns.  Really impressive stuff.

If you have kids, the Massanutten Resort is not too far away and they have a fantastic indoor/outdoor water park.

Finally, Monticello isn’t too far away, and that’s an excellent visit if you’re a history guy.
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Luray Caverns is awesome. Lots of good wineries in the apple valley too. 

 
This is all great info.  Thanks, everyone.  My wife has family in Fredrick, MD, so I'm thinking that we're going to stay there Friday night, get up early and head down to the southern entrance.  Do that drive for the day and then head back to Fredrick for Saturday night.  I know Fredrick isn't all that close, but it serves as a good base camp and is also free.  

Once you're on the Drive, are there going to be any places to pull off and eat (not asking for a restaurant up there or anything like that.  More like something simple.)?  Or should we be packing lunches a la picnic style?

 
matttyl said:
No, $30 per vehicle, good for 7 days in case you want to drive really, really slow.  If you can plan to do it next weekend, though, it's free.
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I notice it says $30 per vehicle, $15 per person.  So am I paying for the vehicle and the people inside it?  I know when you take the ferry to places like Block Island in RI, they do this weird pricing.  As if I'm just going to send the car through on it's own and have it report back to the rest of us how the trip was.

 
Agree on Luray Caverns - definitely a cool place to go. If you have a few extra hours and are in the C-ville area, there's always Monticello if your kids are into that.

 
TheIronSheik said:
This is all great info.  Thanks, everyone.  My wife has family in Fredrick, MD, so I'm thinking that we're going to stay there Friday night, get up early and head down to the southern entrance.  Do that drive for the day and then head back to Fredrick for Saturday night.  I know Fredrick isn't all that close, but it serves as a good base camp and is also free.  
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The south entrance will be about 2.5-3 hours from Frederick. Your best bet is probably to take 340 south from Frederick through Harper's Ferry, to VA Rte 7 west, to I-81 south, to I-64 east. Going back, it's about 1-1.5 hours from the north entrance to Frederick. Just take 340 all the way back from Front Royal.

 
TheIronSheik said:
I notice it says $30 per vehicle, $15 per person.  So am I paying for the vehicle and the people inside it?  I know when you take the ferry to places like Block Island in RI, they do this weird pricing.  As if I'm just going to send the car through on it's own and have it report back to the rest of us how the trip was.
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$30 for the car and everyone in it.  If you're biking (or walking/hiking) it's $15 per person.  It's actually a great place to bike with the speed limit so low. 

 
TheIronSheik said:
Once you're on the Drive, are there going to be any places to pull off and eat (not asking for a restaurant up there or anything like that.  More like something simple.)?  Or should we be packing lunches a la picnic style?
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Take a look here.  Big Meadows and Skyland are the two bigger dining spots that I remember.  Please, please, please if you go to either, get the Mile High Blackberry Ice cream.  It's probably the best thing ever.  When hiking the Appalachian Trail, my cousin hiked an extra 6 miles each way (as they tell it) just to get it. 

 
dgreen said:
If you already have a national park annual pass (interagency pass), you won't have to pay anything extra.

I think driving the whole thing in a day is doable, depending on how many stops you want to make. Stay in either Charlottesville or Staunton on Friday night and enter the southern entrance in the morning after breakfast. Total drive time to the northern end is probably about 2.5 hours, so that can leave you a good 6.5 hours to stop at overlooks, visitor centers, and some short hikes. Start at 9:00 and be out of the northern end by 6:00. I'd then suggest having dinner at Spelunkers in Front Royal. Nothing fancy, but a good burger place.

There are like 75 overlooks, so don't get into the habit of stopping at too many early on. There's always another one nearby. I have no specific knowledge about which overlooks are the best; maybe someone else does.

Agree with the suggestion to look up trails on AllTrails or to talk to a ranger at a Visitors Center. Just tell them something like "We're looking for short, somewhat challenging hikes with some great views. Climbing over some rocks would be cool and maybe seeing a few waterfalls." Or whatever it is you're interested in.

You'll lose cell signal a GPS at times while on Skyline Drive and not all the trailheads have the best marking so pick up a park map.
Click to expand...
So by getting there at 9 am, we'd have plenty of time to drive the whole thing and make some pit stops along the way?  

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Sure. If you drove straight through without stopping, you're talking about 2.5-3 hours.
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Yeah. I only drove the top half of Skyline and still feel like I missed a ton of stuff.  Couldn’t imagine just driving up it and not really stopping/hiking/moonshining or whatever else the locals do in the area  ;)

 
Being as I'm unfamiliar with this part of the US, I think I just realized that Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway are two different things.  Or is Skyline Drive just what the northern portion of the BRP is called?

Some day I'd like to do all of the BRP, but that's for another day.  Year, really, I guess.  But it makes me think about all of the images I've seen and I'm guessing most of them are of the BRP.  Like the elevated roadways meandering through the mountainsides.  

Are the two roadways similar?  I did some Google image searches for Skyline Drive and a bunch of the images end up being of BRP.  

Regardless, we'll be going to SD.  And I expect it will be amazing.  But just trying to figure out what to expect now that I think what was in my mind is not exactly what we'll be seeing.

 
My advice is don’t overengineer your trip. Just get there with a list of things you want to do, but you don’t have to necessarily do everything. Trips like that are teh suxors imo. Think European Vacation and then don’t plan that way.

 
TheIronSheik said:
Being as I'm unfamiliar with this part of the US, I think I just realized that Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway are two different things.  Or is Skyline Drive just what the northern portion of the BRP is called?

Some day I'd like to do all of the BRP, but that's for another day.  Year, really, I guess.  But it makes me think about all of the images I've seen and I'm guessing most of them are of the BRP.  Like the elevated roadways meandering through the mountainsides.  

Are the two roadways similar?  I did some Google image searches for Skyline Drive and a bunch of the images end up being of BRP.  

Regardless, we'll be going to SD.  And I expect it will be amazing.  But just trying to figure out what to expect now that I think what was in my mind is not exactly what we'll be seeing.
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Skyline Drive is what it's called in Shenandoah NP.  Blue Ridge Parkway runs south from the park.

 
Osaurus said:
My advice is don’t overengineer your trip. Just get there with a list of things you want to do, but you don’t have to necessarily do everything. Trips like that are teh suxors imo. Think European Vacation and then don’t plan that way.
Click to expand...
Totally agree.  We tend to do about 2 to 4 trips like this a year.  Sometimes more.  My goal is to always have an outline of a plan.  Like where to start, where to finish.  And some possible important stops along the way.  But we don't have an itinerary and if we find something that we enjoy, we don't leave it to rush to another spot.  We let the day take us where it wants.  

But with that said, I don't like going in blind.  I like to have that basic outline and some local knowledge.  

 
So it looks like July 12 to July 14 will be the trip, with the 13th being the actual Skyline Drive day.  Still working out possible stops on the SD, but we'll be starting at the southern entrance and doing the whole drive to the northern entrance.  If we get to the halfway point with more than half the day still left, we may make a detour to go check out the Luray Caverns.  It doesn't seem too far from the halfway point, so we'll see.  

I tweaked my back last fall and we haven't been able to do too much hiking in about 8 months, so I'm thinking we won't be doing a lot of that, unfortunately.  My fear is our bodies aren't ready for an even half way strenuous mountain hike.  So maybe one waterfall hike.  But nothing too long.  

If anyone has any suggestions as to stops or things to see on the way, that would be great.  It can be anything.  Doesn't mean we'll do it, but would love to hear all of the suggestions you have, or things you've done and enjoyed.  

I'm not sure if I should rent a car or take my own.  I mean, I love my car.  And it will fit us all just fine.  But it's a lot of miles.  Plus to renting a car is no wear and tear on my car.  Minus would be paying for a rental and not sure if I'd like it.  I mean, it is an entire trip pretty much of driving.  So I want to be comfortable.  Still deciding on this.  Right now it's 50/50.  

 
There is a waterfall hike by the main visitor center which is pretty popular: Dark Hollow Falls.

Something I've been meaning to do, but haven't gotten around to yet, is signing up for a tour of Herbert Hoover's Rapidan Camp -- Presidential retreat pre-Camp David.

 
TheIronSheik said:
How long do we need there?  Just trying to figure out the time budgeting. 
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By coincidence, me and the family stopped here today while out on a drive.  The tour is guided and about an hour and a half.  Pretty impressive, but we were in a large group and we could barely hear the guide in parts as when folks talk it echos.  If you have any ability to be in a small group, do it.

 
So we are going this weekend.  Saturday is the actual visit.  We're probably going to scale back on the hiking unfortunately because of my two broken toes, which sucks.  And I think that means Luray Caverns will be a definite stop.  Looking forward to this trip.  Hope it lives up to the hype I've built up in my mind.

 
TheIronSheik said:
So we are going this weekend.  Saturday is the actual visit.  We're probably going to scale back on the hiking unfortunately because of my two broken toes, which sucks.  And I think that means Luray Caverns will be a definite stop.  Looking forward to this trip.  Hope it lives up to the hype I've built up in my mind.
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Did you kick another ottoman, or was the 2nd toe collateral damage from the first kick?

 
Jaysus said:
Did you kick another ottoman, or was the 2nd toe collateral damage from the first kick?
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Broke them both at the same time.  Two birds with one stone.  Or two toes with one ottoman.  I'm trying to get that phrase to catch on.  PETA is on board with my new phrase.

 
Is there anything else worth seeing on the drive too and from the park?  Even if it's just some goofy thing to see as we drive by?  

I'm really feeling the pressure here.  As my daughter has been getting older, she's not as excited to go see nature as she used to be.  Usually, after the trip she'll admit she enjoyed it, but leading up to the trip, she's usually not so thrilled.  I feel like this is the least prepared for a family fun trip I've ever been.  Our real vacation is in two weeks, so we elected to do this drive instead of Niagara Falls this year.  She wasn't sold on that one either, but I felt confident that after that trip, she'd have been impressed.   

 
TheIronSheik said:
Is there anything else worth seeing on the drive too and from the park?  Even if it's just some goofy thing to see as we drive by?  

I'm really feeling the pressure here.  As my daughter has been getting older, she's not as excited to go see nature as she used to be.  Usually, after the trip she'll admit she enjoyed it, but leading up to the trip, she's usually not so thrilled.  I feel like this is the least prepared for a family fun trip I've ever been.  Our real vacation is in two weeks, so we elected to do this drive instead of Niagara Falls this year.  She wasn't sold on that one either, but I felt confident that after that trip, she'd have been impressed.   
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Natural Bridge, Va has some goofy stuff, if you go through that area. Dinosaur Kingdom II. 

ETA: Same person who made Dinosaur Kingdom also created Foamhenge — Stonehenge out of styrofoam.

What’s your driving route? I can try to think of some other stuff.

 
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TheIronSheik said:
Is there anything else worth seeing on the drive too and from the park?  Even if it's just some goofy thing to see as we drive by?  

I'm really feeling the pressure here.  As my daughter has been getting older, she's not as excited to go see nature as she used to be.  Usually, after the trip she'll admit she enjoyed it, but leading up to the trip, she's usually not so thrilled.  I feel like this is the least prepared for a family fun trip I've ever been.  Our real vacation is in two weeks, so we elected to do this drive instead of Niagara Falls this year.  She wasn't sold on that one either, but I felt confident that after that trip, she'd have been impressed.   
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Where are you driving from?

 
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