From very people-y to less people-y

 

So… this was our morning.  Five lanes of bumper to bumper traffic in each direction.  Our gps did an admirable job of avoiding a few miles of it, and we got to see some very expensive Maryland neighborhoods with beautiful homes on streets not really designed for RVs.  Again, Steve did a great job of maneuvering us through it all.  Maryland and DC traffic is no joke!  And, this was at 10:00 in the morning!  Not even rush hour.  

We did not have a long distance to go, and the gps said it was only an hour and a half to Shenandoah National Park. We decided to enter the park a little further south than the northernmost entrance, so that added almost an hour to the trip.  There is a tunnel we were trying to avoid… it has a 12’8” clearance, and although our height is 11’6”, we didn’t know how much clearance we would have on the sloped sides of the tunnel. We also didn’t know if there would be a lot of traffic which could affect driving down the center line to avoid hitting the side of the tunnel.  Sheesh!  The things you need to keep track of when driving an RV! 

Shenandoah National Park is a long narrow park that runs along a ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Appalachian Mountain Range. There is a road called Skyline Rd. that runs the full length of it, approximately 100 miles.  There are 70+ viewpoints on either side of the drive.  There are many hikes in the area with most of them including quite a bit of elevation gain.  The Appalachian Trail also runs through this park, and we did see a few through-hikers as we drove around.  Since it is a Monday and it’s after Labor Day, we were able to get a reservation at one of the campgrounds in the park!  I was so excited!  We filled our propane and water tanks before we arrived as it is dry camping here.  No hookups.  It’s really beautiful though.  We are a bit early for fall foliage, but a few of the trees are clearly high achievers and have already started to turn.  

Our campsite at Big Meadows Campground

After getting settled at the campsite, we got in the truck and drove part of the northern section of Skyline Dr.  The views were spectacular on both sides of the ridge.  AND, there was no traffic!  We had downloaded an audio tour that has a gps system included so it tells us about the park and what we are looking at as we drive along.  It’s crazy that it knew where we were, even when we pulled off at an overlook.  We highly recommend audio tours when visiting places like national parks.  Most of the time when we pulled into a viewpoint, we were the only ones there.  National parks are famous for being overcrowded, but wow, this time that wasn’t the case.  It was very cool to feel like we had the whole place to ourselves! Especially after our morning drive getting here! 

On our way back to our campground, we stopped at one of the old lodges in the park.  Their patio was open and dog friendly, so we grabbed a couple of local beers named after the area we are staying in. The sun was warm, the temps cool, and no one was there.  It was just lovely gazing at the Shenandoah Valley.  After our beers, we dropped Maggie at the RV and went to the lodge near our campground for dinner.  Wow, was that good!  Tomorrow we will leave this beautiful park and head back into the valley for some historical sites.  

Pictures do NOT do this place justice

Even Maggie enjoyed the view

Not a bad spot to enjoy a cold IPA