Swift Run Gap is where US 33 crosses the Blue Ridge, and where Skyline Drive passes over it on a bridge at about 720 metres, or 2,365 feet. It is one of four entrance stations to the park, and it is a natural break point, with the road dropping west to Elkton and the Shenandoah Valley, and east to Stanardsville and the Virginia Piedmont. The gap itself is a low saddle in the ridge, forested with oak, hickory and maple, and the drive on either side climbs back up to the high ridges in long, smooth curves.
The gap has a place in Virginia legend. In 1716, the colonial governor Alexander Spotswood led an expedition of gentlemen, servants, rangers and Native American guides over the Blue Ridge here, the first organised English party to see the Shenandoah Valley. They drank toasts to the king on the far side, and Spotswood later gave each member a small golden horseshoe, and the group became known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. The story has been embroidered over the centuries, but it marks the moment the valley was opened to settlement from the east.
US 33 is a good road in its own right, with sweeping curves and steep gradients as it climbs from the valley to the gap and down the other side. It carries more traffic than Skyline Drive, including trucks, but the riding is more varied, and the views are good. Elkton, about eight kilometres west, is a small town on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, with fuel, food and a few shops, and Harrisonburg, a university town, is further west. To the east, the road runs through the Piedmont toward Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.
Along the drive just north of the gap, Lewis Mountain was once the only area of the park open to Black visitors during the era of segregation, with its own lodge, campground and picnic grounds. The park has worked in recent years to tell this part of its story. In the evening, the light on the ridges is lovely, with layer after layer of blue hills fading into the distance, the haze that gave the Blue Ridge its name. Bring a warm layer, since the temperature drops quickly after sunset, even in summer.