Shenandoah National Park

[Glenn in TN]

My family will be staying at the southern most part of Shenandoah NP at the end of June. Has anyone stayed in this area? What are the main attractions. I know we will be visiting Montecello, but I'm not sure what esle there is to see.

How long would it take to drive the entire length of Skyline Drive?

[Freedom]

Try this site for all kinds of information: http://www.nps.gov/shen/home.htm

[Glenn in TN]

I tried that website and it is some help. It is not nearly as comprehensive as the one for the Great Smoky Mountain NP. I was wondering if anyone had some "don't miss" hikes or lookouts. We are planning on staying at Loft Mountain campground. What are our chances of getting in Tuesday or so before the 4th weekend?

[Glenn in TN]

Since no one has stepped up, I'll write of our time in the park.

We did stay at the Loft Mountain campground. Of all the campgrounds in the park, this one looks to be the most RV friendly. Most of the sites here are of the "U" shaped pull through variety. The best ones are in the back of the campground, with IMHO the best being on the outer loop facing west. These are taken early, but most of these are still pull thru, very level, and offer the best views off of the mountains. The Appalachian Trail runs alongside much of the camground and just outside many of these sites and offers a great view of the sunset barring clouds (which we had the few days we were in our site during that time). All sites are very private as the park has allowed the underbrush to grow up between the sites. The other campgrounds we drove thru were much more open and looked to be much older. The bathhouses in the Loft Mountain campground were very new well kept. Having stayed in the Smoky Mountains for many years, the hot water was welcome. Most of the campgrounds had shower facilities (except Matthew's Arm - northern most), but with only 3 stalls (in the Loft Mountain facility) in both Men's and Women's side, finding one available especially on weekends were a problem. Loft Mountain is the biggest with some 200 sites.

Of all the things we did do while in the park, the visit to the Ramadan House was my favorite. It was a 15+ minute van ride to a site that Herbert Hoover had set up as a presidential getaway. It was a ranger led trip that was very enlightening. We had to set up the trip at the Big Meadows Visitor Center. There is a lot to do at this visitor center as well.

One of the reasons we decided on this NP this time was its proximity to Washingon, DC. I would recommend staying at Matthew's Arm for this, as we were 3+ hours from the VA side of DC. And I recommend trying to do DC in one day from here and on a Saturday. Traffic was somewhat better and Metro parking was free (and more available than the weekday we did 1st).

Hope someone gets to go soon. And by the way, I wouldn't drive past the Smokies again to get to Shenendoah. While it was beautiful, there is no place that I have found yet that compares to the Smokies!