Shenandoah National Park United States

Legendary

A long, narrow park located in the rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Photo by MatthewBenson

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About 500 families were living in these mountains when the government decided to make them a park. They were told to leave.

Some had farmed the same hollows for generations. Their stone walls, chimneys, and cemeteries are still scattered through the forest.

Shenandoah is different from the big western parks. Out west, the land already belonged to the government. Here in Virginia, it was all private farms and woodlots, and the state had to buy it piece by piece and hand it over.

Congress approved the park on May 22, 1926. It took nine years to gather the land, and the park was finally established on December 26, 1935.

The Great Depression shaped what came next. In 1933, young men from the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived to build trails, campgrounds, and overlooks, working from eleven camps inside the park.

Their biggest project was a road. Skyline Drive runs 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the entire length of the park from Front Royal to Rockfish Gap.

The speed limit is 35 miles per hour, and 75 overlooks line the route. Driving the whole thing with stops takes most of a day.

President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park on July 3, 1936. About 700,000 people visited in its first full year, most of them driving up from Washington, D.C., just 75 miles away.

The highest point is Hawksbill Mountain at 4,051 feet. It's a modest peak by western standards, but the summit looks out over the Shenandoah Valley on one side and the rolling Piedmont on the other.

The forest that was cleared for farms has grown back. Black bears live here, along with deer that have lost most of their fear of people.

Drive Skyline Drive in mid-October, when the whole ridge turns red and gold, and go on a weekday to beat the crowds. Hike the 1.7-mile loop to the top of Hawksbill for the park's best view. Walk a stretch of the Appalachian Trail, which runs 101 miles through the park and crosses Skyline Drive again and again.