The Top 4 Reasons to Visit Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park
June is a month dedicated to the Great Outdoors, and there is no better place to visit and explore than Virginia. Our particular area of Virginia just so happens to boast a portion of Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park, so if you’re in search of breathtaking views, stunning scenic drives, and hiking trails of various levels of difficulty, then this is your ideal outdoor adventure.
Still need a bit more convincing? Here are our Top 4 Reasons to Visit Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park:
- The events. With everything from clogging performances to watercolor painting workshops to guided hikes, there is always a flurry of activity around Skyline Drive. Sign up for repelling and rock climbing, white oak basket making, or astronomy activities. Dust off your hiking boots and join a Twilight Hike, or ready yourself for the Blackberry Delight Festival and the Apple Butter Celebration.
- The hikes. How would Great Outdoors Month be complete without a hike? Enjoy an easy 2.7 mile trek along the Loft Mountain Loop or Blackrock Summit’s 1-mile trail. If you want a challenging day hike, take on the strenuous 9.4 miles of the Trayfoot Mountain-Paine Run Loop.
- The history. The official groundbreaking of Skyline Drive was in 1931 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal program. (In fact, FDR himself paid a couple visits to Shenandoah National Park.) We can thank the Civilian Conservation Corps for the hours of effort they put into making Skyline Drive what it is today, as they carried out “various conservation projects, including landscape naturalization, creating sidewalks and park villages, and constructing roadways” (nps.gov).
- The view. This should be an obvious attraction for anyone wanting to visit Skyline Drive. With hundreds of miles of lush, Virginia scenery, there is no shortage of flora and fauna for your viewing pleasure. (One especially amazing view is the fog ocean. If conditions are right, an “atmospheric inversion” known as a fog ocean appears among the mountains, covering everything but the peaks of the mountaintops, which stand like islands rising out of the sea.)
The Great Outdoors awaits your arrival! Book your room at Afton Mountain Bed & Breakfast, and begin your Shenandoah and Skyline adventure.
This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Stolz Gary M, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
