Shenandoah National Park

Running 105 miles along the mountaintops of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is Shenandoah Nation Park. The park was created in 1935 in an age when tall skyscrapers were all the rage to give people a view from the top of the mountains. The park was also established in part to give the East a national park after all the ones opened in the West. The park was initially created from over a 1,000 privately owned tracts of land, and in 1976 Congress designated over 40% of the park wilderness forever protecting it.

Shenandoah National Park is highlighted by Skyline Drive which runs the entire length, north to south, of the park. There are four entrance stations to Shenandoah National Park: Front Royal in the north (72 miles west of Washington, DC), Swift Run Gap on the west, Thorton Gap on the east, and Rockfish Gap in the south (91 miles west of Richmond). Since I had traveled from Tennessee, I entered from the southern point in Rockfish Gap after staying a night at a Harvest Host location in Waynesboro, VA. I found Skyline Drive very easy to drive with numerous overlooks to take in the spectacular views. You just need to be cautious of the numerous cyclists you share the roadway with you throughout the park.

In addition to Skyline Drive, the park is also known for numerous hiking trails, many to scenic waterfalls. I did the 2-mile hike to popular Dark Hallow Falls and was rewarded with a beautiful 70-foot waterfall which is broken into two levels. There were many young brook trout in the large pools at the base of each fall. The Appalachian Trail is a 2,190-mile-long footpath that begins in Springer Mountain, Georgia and ends at Mount Katahdin, Maine. There are a total of 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail running through the boundaries of Shenandoah National Park and it is very common to see backpackers throughout the park. I hiked an easy 2.1-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail from Milam Gap to Tanner Ridge Road. The trail is well defined and marked with either an A.T. symbol on trail markers or white trail blazers on trees. It was a beautiful hike in which I encountered a very tame buck and a peaceful mountain cemetery, one of over 100 in the park!

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover came to the Blue Ridge Mountains looking for a mountain retreat to escape the oppressive summer heat and press of Washington. Being an avid fishman, he settled on the Rapidan River headwaters which is known to have some of the best trout fishing in Virginia. Mrs. Hoover worked with architects and a company of Marines camped in the area went to work building the new retreat, Rapidan Camp. The camp originally consisted of 14 buildings for the Hoovers, their guests, and the many staff/secretaries who served in the Hoover White House. In order to provide the soothing sounds of running water for their guests, Mrs. Hoover instructed the Marines to construct Hemlock Run which diverts stream water through the camp. Today there are three structures that have been restored and managed by the park service. There is The Brown House which was the President and First Lady’s quarters. After my 2-mile hike to the camp, I rested on the same rear porch that the Hoover’s enjoyed as it overlooks the peaceful Laurel Prong stream. The Prime Minister’s cabin was so named after British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald who visited the camp in 1929. One interesting note about the Prime Minister’s cabin is that it was frequently used by the most famous man in the world, Charles Lindberg. The last remaining structure is the Creel Cabin which was quarters for Hoover’s most senior staff as it was adjacent to The Brown House. Upon his departure from the Oval Office, Hoover donated the camp to the National Park Service and became an advocate for the creation of Shenandoah National Park.

I stayed at the campground in Big Meadow which is at mile post 51 of Skyline Drive. Before it was a national park, the Big Meadows area was a popular area to graze livestock in the cooler mountain air. When Shenandoah became a national park in 1934, Big Meadows was the site of the FDR’s dedication ceremony and it became a camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) who built the infrastructure of the new park. During World War II, the area was also used for training American soldiers heading to the European theater. I stayed in Loop A of the Big Meadows campground and found it to be a very peaceful place to stay with spectacular sunset views from my site.

While at the Big Meadow visitor center, I attended an interesting ranger program on the forests of Shenandoah National Park. I learned that some 120 years ago, the forests running all the way up the Appalachian Mountain range were full of old-growth American chestnut trees. In fact, many of the early structures and signage for the national park were made of chestnut lumber. In 1904, New York starting importing the Asian chestnut as an ornamental tree. Although these Asian cousins looked healthy, they carried a deadly blithe that they were immune to but the American chestnut was not. In only fifteen years, all the American chestnut trees in the Blue Ridge Mountains were dead. Today, the American chestnut tree is essentially extinct with saplings succumbing to the blithe before they reach maturity. There are efforts to re-engineer the American chestnut’s DNA to introduce the immunity from the Asian chestnut and bring these beautiful giants back.

I had a great time in Shenandoah National Park and, with exception of my last day there, enjoyed beautiful spring weather. Now it is time to get a fix on Civil War history: next stop Gettysburg!