Shenandoah National Park is just 75 miles outside of DC. It has over 200,000 acres of wilderness that boasts waterfalls, hiking trails, and a variety of wildlife. Skyline Drive is a winding 105 mile road that allows visitors to see a portion of the park. There are many overlooks along the way, areas to park and hike for an hour or a day, a hotel or cabins to spend the night, and most impressively a couple of top-notch restaurants and a tap room.
Much of the drive walls and overlooks were built by the CCC. Mac Kid was gifted a Kit Kitterage American Girl Doll and the series of books for Christmas. Our Skyline Drive trip was the perfect accompaniment to the books as Kit’s brother goes to work for the CCC during the Great Depression.
We started prepping for our drive the night before. Driving all day long with lots of stops means that car snacks are a must. We headed over to Capital Candy Jar to pick up driving snacks. Mom picked up her favorite Swedish fish, Dad went for the peanut butter crunch, and the kid chose truffles, gummy pumpkins, and chocolate covered Oreos. There is plenty of spaces to picnic on the drive. Streets Market on M street had all of the portable groceries that we needed for the perfect picnic. We ended up getting individual containers of salami and single wrapped cheeses along with some unique chips and delicious cookies. They have so many unique offerings that it was hard to choose.
We headed to the park first thing Saturday morning. The lines can get very long to get into the park. We have a National Park Pass so we were waved to the empty lane with no wait. A single-entry fee is $30 and that will get you into the park for 7 days. Veterans are able to get an annual National Park Pass at no cost. Make sure you get a map when you enter. It will tell you where you can stop for a meal, where you can locate the playground if the kids need to swing, where to find the amazing gift shops (Mac Kid started her Christmas shopping), and most importantly all of the places that have restroom facilities.
We stopped at many of the overlooks. Mac Kid took her camera and was very pleased with the photo options available. We plan to use at least one photo from our trip for our Thanksgiving cards. The leaves are brilliant colors and the views of some of the overlooks remind us more of a painting than real life. On a previous trip, we hiked to a waterfall. It rained this time so we spent most of our time in the car enjoying the drive. We try to stay in the park until dark. The moon is always spectacular in the mountains. We often see the most animals at night. We are sure to see plenty of deer every time we visit. Other animals that we have encountered have included a bobcat, lots of squirrels and chipmunks, and very large birds. Most exciting to us was this time a bear ran out of the woods very close to our car.
We have really enjoyed it when we were able to spend the night. The hotel rooms feel like cabins. We have not been able to book a cabin there. They usually sell out very early and we have not planned that far in advance.
Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park is one of our favorite things to do in the fall. We are already planning for next year’s trip.
