Shenandoah National Park

Virginia's only national park runs for roughly 170 km along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a long, narrow ribbon of protected forest barely wider than a few valleys in places yet covering an area slightly larger than the Swiss canton of Solothurn. Around 40% of it is designated wilderness. The ridges rise up to 900 m above the Piedmont to the east and the Shenandoah Valley to the west, and the whole park is threaded by a single scenic road, Skyline Drive.

The park was dedicated in 1936 on land assembled from hundreds of mountain homesteads whose residents were displaced, and for nearly its first fifteen years its facilities were racially segregated and largely closed to Black visitors. Today it protects one of the densest black bear populations in the United States, along with deer, wild turkey, and a famously bold skunk contingent around the campgrounds and picnic areas.

Practical

Entry is $30 per vehicle, valid for seven days. The park is open year round, though sections of Skyline Drive close in winter weather and during deer-management operations. Cell coverage is patchy to nonexistent along most of the ridge, so download maps beforehand.