The first leg of our East Coast Road Trip was Shenandoah National Park. This was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip - the park has so much to offer!
Our visit consisted primarily of hiking and driving down Skyline Drive which are really the primary activities in Shenandoah. There are hikes of varying ability and distance so there is something for everyone!
Shenandoah does require a park pass which is $30 and if you do plan on hiking Old Rag you will need an additional reservation/permit. While the permit is in the pilot system this year it is currently $1 per person to reserve.
We arrived later in the day on a Friday, visited some overlooks, did a bunch of hikes on Saturday, and then left Sunday morning. Because of our short amount of time, this guide really only covers the northern area of Shenandoah which is still full of awesome overlooks and hikes. We were able to cram in a lot of sights in that timeframe, you can use this guide to do the same if you're short on time!
Due to traffic, we arrived quite a bit later to Shenandoah National Park then we had originally planned. The original plan was to enter in the Front Royal Entrance, drive down Skyline Drive, stop at some overlooks and hike Mary's Rock. Because of our late arrival we had to cut out Mary's Rock but we still had some pretty great overcast views at the overlooks we were able to stop at.
Signal Knob Overlook - Milepost 5.5
Range View Overlook - Milepost 17
Tunnel Parking Overlook - Milepost 22.2
This had a cool little waterfall too!
Jewell Hallow Overlook - Milepost 36.5
The sun was setting at this point so we headed to our Airbnb over in Basye. This Airbnb was perfect for us and our dogs but we would have liked to have stayed a lot closer to the park as we were about an hour away.
We set out first thing the next morning knowing we wanted to get a bunch of hikes in. I had made reservations to hike Old Rag on Saturday but we decided based on our short amount of time we would rather do multiple smaller hikes so we could experience more of the park. It has also snowed overnight on Skyline Drive so that changed the conditions for hiking.
The first hike we did was Bearfence Mountain. We started with this so we could enter the park at the Swift Run entrance and then work our way back up to the Thorton Gap Entrance.
Bearfence is only 1.0 miles roundtrip with 242 ft. of elevation gain. It does not sound like much but this trail was pretty nerve-wracking as there is a ton of scrambling and the dusting of snow made things pretty slippery.
The trail is located across the road from the parking area and starts out with some stairs and just some gradual incline.
Shortly after, you'll hit the Appalachian Trail marker. This is where you'll loop back if you go up the scramble and down the AT.
After you hit the trail marker, the trail will veer right and you'll start the scrambles. There are a ton of these and it's super fun but if you are afraid of heights or are unsure of your footing you are going to be challenged.
It took us about an hour to get up all of the scrambles. Once you get to the top and loop back down the AT though it's a quick jaunt back to the car.
Our next hike we went to Dark Hollow Falls. Though we had Bearfence all to ourselves, which was amazing, we started to encounter more people as we went on to our next trails.
Dark Hollow Falls is 1.4miles and 564ft. of elevation gain. It's a pretty gradual incline all the way down and you'll follow along a pretty stream. The trail will first take you to an overlook of the falls but keep going and you'll be able to go right up to the falls in all different sections as they cascade over a long range.
Our final hike of the morning took us to Stony Man. This is where we experienced the most amount of people which makes for an entirely different hiking experience. This is another really easy, short hike at 1.5 miles long with 318ft. of elevation gain. Note, there are two different lookouts, the first lookout was really crowded so we were able to go to the next one to have it to ourselves.
At this point, we wanted to get back to our dogs, have some lunch and take them on an afternoon hike with this. Once we had the dogs, we went back to the park, entered at the Thorton Gap entrance and went to Hawksbill Mountain, which is the highest point in the park and allows dogs! Again, this is a popular trailhead so be prepared for crowds.
This has some more cool rock outcroppings and a constructed overlook area. This was perfect with our dogs.
On our way back we stopped at the visitor's center and some more overlooks!
Crescent Rock Overlook - Milepost 44
Stony Man Overlook - Milepost 38.5
Pinnacles Overlook - 35.1
After a day of hiking we had a post hike flight at Hawksbill Brewing Company
Tips
Go in the off season/overcast days/end of the day or early morning/during the week
When we arrived Friday evening, we only saw about 5 other cars on the 30 miles of Skyline Drive we went down. It was incredible, we had overlooks to ourselves and could take as much time as we needed. This was a big difference from the amount of people we saw on Saturday when we were hiking.
Dogs are only allowed on certain trails.
Check this ahead of time, one of the reasons we planned things the way we did was so we could still spend half of the day with our dogs.
Get your park passes ahead of time
Even in the off season, on a Saturday, we still had to wait in line at the gate to enter, though you'll still have to wait in line, you'll expedite the process if you already have your park pass
As always when hiking, bring the 10 essentials and leave no trace!
Check out our other posts on our East coast road trip!
Comments