Shenandoah National Park: Skyline Drive

This tour starts at either end, here at the Front Royal Visitor Center or at the Blue Ridge Tunnel West Trailhead. Drivers fill the tank in town, since Big Meadows has the park's only pumps, and bring a layer, because…

Just ahead, turn left onto South Royal Avenue.

Coming up, turn left onto Skyline Drive, at the sign for Skyline Drive.

The north entrance station stands at mile 0.6 of Skyline Drive, just past the turn off Highway 340. Stations take cards, not cash. A parking area right after the turn-in marks the lowest point on the Drive, about 590…

In the Second World War, the Civilian Conservation Corps camps emptied and a different kind of crew came to the Blue Ridge. Conscientious objectors kept the park running from a camp at Pinnacles, and the park had more…

Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, at mile 4.6, began as a 1938 dining hall. It has exhibits, a film, a park store and restrooms in season. The Fox Hollow Trail starts across the Drive, a 1.2-mile circuit with a 310-foot cl…

Signal Knob Overlook, at mile 5.7, is the classic first view of the Shenandoah Valley from the north end. Elevation is about 2,090 feet. The long double ridge of Massanutten fills the middle distance, with the river's…

Compton Gap, at mile 10.4, is where the Drive leaves Dickey Ridge for the Blue Ridge crest. The Appalachian Trail crosses here, and a small lot serves walks to Fort Windham Rocks and Compton Peak. Indian Run Overlook,…

Out-of-work stonemasons built the first stone walls along the Drive, and the Civilian Conservation Corps cut the log guardrails. Franklin Roosevelt came to see the road himself, and not everyone in his car approved of…

Range View Overlook, at mile 17.1, looks lengthwise down the Blue Ridge toward Stony Man and is often counted the best view in the North District. Elevation is 2,810 feet. It sits on the east side of the Drive, with P…

Hogback Overlook runs from about mile 20.8 to 21.0, the longest overlook on the Drive. At 3,385 feet it is the highest in the North District. Stopping near the middle takes in the most, or drivers can stop at each end…

Thornton Gap once had a rival resort called Panorama, and it kept something in a cage for the tourists. This one takes in a lawsuit, a paw through the wire, two young bears and a fair question about who was feeding wh…

Thornton Hollow Overlook, at mile 27.6, is a broad pull-off with a view of more than 180 degrees across the head of Thornton Hollow toward the Piedmont. Elevation is 2,460 feet. Hogback rises to the north, Pass Mounta…

Marys Rock Tunnel, at mile 32.2, has a posted clearance of 12 feet 8 inches for both lanes, the one hard limit on the Drive. Taller vehicles leave at Thornton Gap, around mile 31.5, and visit the northern or southern…

The Panorama parking area at Thornton Gap has restrooms and water, and it is the last good place to turn around before Marys Rock Tunnel going south. The resort that once stood here is gone, and nothing has replaced i…

Hazel Mountain Overlook, at mile 33.0, has granodiorite boulders along its outer edge that visitors can climb for the view. The park names it as a place to stand beside the oldest rock in Shenandoah. Old Rag is in the…

On the old highway just below Thornton Gap stood a house, a store, a gas pump and a lunchroom known for its pie. In 1935 the man who lived there had something to say to the government, and he said it in his own words.…

Stony Man Overlook, at mile 38.6, is among the most popular stops on the Drive and the second-longest overlook. It sits at Hughes River Gap, 3,100 feet up, with a long view out to Luray in the Page Valley and New Mark…

George Freeman Pollock built a mountain resort on charm, debt and rattlesnakes, then campaigned for the national park that would surround it. Skyland's founder is one of the great characters of this road, and he told…

Hawksbill is the highest summit in the park, 4,050 feet by the park's figure. Crescent Rock Overlook, at mile 44.4, faces it across the head of a hollow. Two trails reach the top, from Hawksbill Gap at mile 45.6 and U…

In 1933 a book about life in the Blue Ridge hollows reached readers across the country. It shaped what they thought of the mountain people. Decades later, an archaeologist walked those same house sites and came up wit…

Shenandoah National Park was created from private land bought or condemned by Virginia and deeded to the federal government in 1935. The Blue Ridge Heritage Project has built chimney monuments naming displaced familie…

Big Meadows, at mile 51, is the center of the park. Byrd Visitor Center has exhibits, a film, a park store and free Wi-Fi, and an exhibit on the park's history, including segregation at Lewis Mountain. The wayside sel…

Herbert Hoover's fishing camp on the Rapidan brought Marines, reporters and a President onto a quiet mountain. A boy with a possum changed things for one small community. The school that followed lasted only a few yea…

Oak forest lines the crest through the central district. Bearfence Mountain, at mile 56.4, offers two short routes from one lot on the west side, a viewpoint walk and a rock scramble to a 360-degree view. Pets are not…

Lewis Mountain, around mile 57.5, has cabins, a campstore, picnic grounds and the park's smallest campground, first-come, first-served, all seasonal. It opened in stages in 1939 and 1940 as a segregated area for Black…

Lewis Mountain's lodge became known for what came out of its kitchen. Lloyd and Mittie Tutt worked there for years, at a place built to keep people apart, and word got around Washington and well beyond. This is a tale…

South River Overlook, at mile 62.7, has a V-shaped view down the South River valley to the Piedmont. The picnic ground, at mile 62.8, has vault toilets but no water, and the trail to South River Falls starts there, a…

In 1716 Governor Spotswood rode into these mountains with gentlemen, rangers, a great deal of liquor and four Meherrin men. Virginia has been telling the story ever since, usually leaving out part of it. Nobody is cer…

Swift Run Overlook, at mile 67.2, is a large pull-off just south of Swift Run Gap and Highway 33, the road to Elkton. South of here the park's rocks change from lava to old sea sediments. Hightop Summit, reached from…

Bacon Hollow Overlook, at mile 69.3, has a rocky, shady island and a view east over Bacon Hollow to Flattop. The park boundary is only about 100 yards below. The park also names this overlook as a place to stand besid…

The hollows below Skyland ran on their own economy. A man called king, a young moonshiner and two revenue officers from the same family all have a part in this one. It ends at a cabin that is still standing, and with…

Brown Mountain Overlook, at mile 76.9, is a long pull-off with a wide view across Big Run to Rockytop ridge. Brown Mountain itself is hidden behind Rocky Mountain. Two Mile Run and Rockytop overlooks are close by, and…

Big Run Overlook, at mile 81.2, looks into the Big Run valley from 2,860 feet, with Rockytop, Patterson Ridge and Rocky Mountain's white cliffs across the view and the Shenandoah Valley beyond. It is on the west side…

Long after they left the mountain, the people of these hollows sat down with tape recorders and told what they had seen there. Some of it they couldn't explain, and they didn't try. These are their stories, in their t…

Blackrock Summit, reached from a lot at mile 84.8 on the west side of the Drive, is a one-mile circuit to a heap of dark lichen-covered quartzite with a wide view. The lot sits about 100 feet off the road. The climb i…

Blackrock Gap, at mile 87.4, once led to Black Rock Springs, a mineral-water resort below the mountain that burned in 1909. Horsehead Overlook, at mile 88.6, looks over Paine Run hollow. The Riprap Trail lot is near m…

In 1669 a German-born traveler named John Lederer set out to see what lay past the Virginia frontier. He left the first written account of climbing this ridge, and he wrote down who went with him. The rest is a lesson…

Crimora Lake Overlook, at mile 92.6, has a wide view west from Turk Mountain to Wildcat Ridge, with the old Crimora manganese workings below. Turk Mountain Overlook, at mile 93.7, faces the mountain's quartzite cliffs…

Calf Mountain Overlook, at mile 98.9, is the big view at the south end of the Drive, about 2,480 feet up. It is long, and its 300-degree view takes in the Shenandoah Valley, with Waynesboro toward one end and Intersta…

Under Rockfish Gap runs the longest railroad tunnel in the United States of its day, dug by hand from both ends in the 1850s. This tale is about the man who laid it out, and the Irish and enslaved men who dug it. The…

The Monacan Indian Nation, a federally recognized sovereign tribe, is headquartered on Bear Mountain in Amherst County. Its people have lived in these mountains for thousands of years. The Nation's own pages share its…

Rockfish Gap marks the south end of Skyline Drive, where it meets Highway 250, Interstate 64 and the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Rockfish Gap entrance station takes cards only. In 1818 a state commission met…

Stay on this road for about a hundred and five miles.

Highway 250 carries southbound drivers over Interstate 64 from the end of Skyline Drive to the Blue Ridge Tunnel West Trailhead. The tour ends at the lot, about half a mile on, where the walk to Crozet's railroad tunn…

This tour starts at either end, here at the Blue Ridge Tunnel West Trailhead or at the Front Royal Visitor Center. The free lot sits beside Highway 250, and a trail leads to Claudius Crozet's railroad tunnel. Bring a…