Today we were able to spend our entire day on fun stuff. Before leaving Natural Chimneys County Park we figured we should actually get a look at the Natural Chimneys. They are not actually chimneys but are hoodoos or tall eroded pillars of limestone jutting up out of the pasture where we are camped. They are nice but they ain’t Bryce Canyon.
We headed up I-81 to a place called Front Royal which is the location of the northern terminus of Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive runs along the ridge on the mountain range east of the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley. This road is basically an extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway which we have followed all the way across Virginia and it runs 108 miles from Waynesboro to Front Royal. Skyline Drive is also the main access road through Shenandoah National Park.
We picked a pretty good day because the weather was mostly clear. Last time we were here, in 2015, Skyline Drive was completely fogged in so we mostly saw the trunks of trees and ashlar masonry guard walls along the pavement. Today we were treated to some great views over the Shenandoah Valley a couple thousand feet below us. It is magnificent country consisting of forests and farmland and everything is bright green.
Along the way we were extremely fortunate in our timing because we spotted deer, ruffed grouse and a foraging bear that wandered into the road directly in front of our truck. The wildflowers along the road were blooming at full tilt and the forests and rock ledges we passed through were fantastic. We have now covered the entire 400+ miles of the Blue Ridge and the Skyline Drive extension and we can heartily recommend these great roads to everybody willing to go slowly through magnificent scenery.
There’s pix. Click here