Shenandoah · Skyline Drive Ridge Day
Ridge-top flow, deer risk and dawn light.
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Why this ride
Ridge-top flow, deer risk and dawn light. Out of Front Royal and back again: 317 km, roughly 5 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes Skyline Drive north, Stony Man overlook and Luray. It keeps to quiet secondary roads.
Roadbook
- Front Royal entrance
fuel
Front Royal is where the Shenandoah Valley meets the northern end of Skyline Drive, and a stop here is mostly about getting your head and your tank right before the ridge. The town of about fifteen thousand sits at the confluence of the two forks of the Shenandoah River, with the Blue Ridge on one side and the long valley on the other. It has stations, supermarkets and a small old centre with a bandstand, a courthouse and a couple of good coffee shops, so it makes an easy start.
The riding begins at the park gate, a few minutes up the road. Skyline Drive runs a hundred and five miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge through Shenandoah National Park, and it was built in the 1930s, much of it by the Civilian Conservation Corps, who also cut the stone walls and overlooks that you will pass. The speed limit is a leisurely thirty-five miles an hour, the corners are gentle, and there are dozens of pull-offs looking out across the valley. It is not a road for pace but for patience. The park charges an entrance fee, which a bike pays at a lower rate than a car.
Deer are the real hazard, and they are everywhere, grazing at the edge of the tarmac and sometimes stepping out without warning. Black bears live here too, with one of the densest populations in the East, though you are more likely to see them from a car window than from a bike. In late spring the mountain laurel blooms, and in October the colour is famous and the traffic matches it. Mornings are often misty, with a blue haze that gives the range its name, and fog can come down quickly, so go carefully.
A little history sits under the road. The park was created by the state buying up and clearing hundreds of mountain homesteads, and the people who lived there were relocated, a hard story the visitor centres tell honestly. The town itself saw action in the Civil War, when Confederate scout Belle Boyd carried information to General Jackson, and the Warren Rifles Confederate Museum keeps the memory alive.
Fuel on the Drive is limited and seasonal, with a few pumps at the larger waysides in the warmer months, so treat Front Royal as the reliable place and arrive with a full tank. Apple Mountain Lake and Shenandoah Farms are small neighbourhoods just beyond town, but the services are all in the middle.
- Skyline Drive north
scenic
Somewhere past the first big overlooks, the northern section of Skyline Drive settles into a rhythm that suits a slow day. This stretch lies north of Thornton Gap, where the ridge is narrow and the road switches from one side of the crest to the other, so that the view alternates between the Shenandoah Valley to the west and the rolling Piedmont to the east. On the western side you see the long, dark wall of Massanutten Mountain beyond the river, and on a clear day the valley floor is a patchwork of farms.
The Appalachian Trail follows the same ridge and crosses the road again and again, so you will see hikers with big packs stepping out of the woods and onto the verge, usually looking glad of a road. Give them room. The corners here are easy and the surface is good, but the real caution is for wildlife and for the overlook entrances, where cars slow without much notice. A stop at a pull-off in the early morning, with fog filling the valley like milk, is one of the great quiet pleasures of Virginia.
The forest is oak and hickory with hemlock in the cool hollows, and the understory is full of laurel and fern. In May and June the wildflowers are plentiful, and the roadsides in September turn gold with goldenrod. Autumn colour starts at the high elevations first and works down the mountain over the course of October, so the same road can look different from one weekend to the next. Ravens ride the updrafts above the overlooks, and from time to time a turkey vulture or a hawk passes below you.
Winter closes the Drive in stretches whenever ice or snow arrives, and the gates stay shut until crews have cleared it. In summer, the road is open and busy at weekends. Midweek, the sense of space can be total.
The nearest towns are well down the mountain. Luray lies about eighteen kilometres away to the south-west and Front Royal about twenty kilometres to the north, and Woodstock is further west on the other side of the valley. Fuel on the Drive itself is thin, so fill up in one of the valley towns before climbing, and bring something to drink. A small picnic and a view are all that most days need.
- Stony Man overlook
photo
Stony Man is the second-highest peak in Shenandoah National Park, at 4,011 feet, and the overlook below it is one of the most photographed spots on Skyline Drive. The mountain gets its name from the profile of its cliffs, which look from the valley like the face of an old man lying on his back, with a craggy brow, nose and chin. If you see it or not depends on the angle and your imagination, but the view from the top is easy to appreciate: the Shenandoah Valley opens out to the west, the Massanutten range stands in the middle, and on a clear day the Allegheny ridges stack up to the horizon.
The overlook on the road is a short stop, but the real prize is a walk. A path of about a mile and a half leads from the Skyland area to the summit through oak, hemlock and mountain laurel, and it is mostly gentle, though the final stretch over bare rock needs sturdy shoes. Skyland itself began in the 1890s as a mountain camp for city people, founded by a man who loved the place and wanted to share it. It grew into a resort, and today the lodge still welcomes guests, with big views from the dining room.
Those cliffs are made of ancient greenstone, a volcanic rock from around five hundred million years ago, and in their cracks grow rare plants that have survived on the high ledges since the ice age. Peregrine falcons have returned to some of the Shenandoah cliffs after being wiped out by pesticides, and ravens are common. In spring the whole slope is bright with trillium and wild azalea, and autumn is the busy season for photographers.
For riding, Skyline Drive at this point is gentle, with easy bends and a low speed limit that keeps traffic slow and polite. The park rangers do patrol, and wildlife on the road is a real concern, particularly at dusk. Fog and cloud can swallow the view quickly, which is a pity if you have climbed for it, so check the forecast and go early.
Luray is the nearest town, about eleven kilometres away down the hill, and Stanley is not much farther. Neither is far, but the Drive itself has few places to refuel, so plan your tank before the climb. Skyland has a restaurant and a gift shop in season, and the big overlooks have restrooms and water.
- Luray food
food
Luray is the pleasant, slightly sleepy town in the Page Valley that most visitors know for what lies beneath it. In 1878, a group of local men searching for a cave found one, and the Luray Caverns have been one of Virginia's top attractions ever since. The caves are filled with towering columns and curtains of stone, and they hold the Great Stalacpipe Organ, an instrument that taps the stalactites with rubber mallets to produce notes. It is a quirky bit of engineering, and the sound, a soft bell-like tone that echoes through the chamber, is oddly moving.
Above ground, the town sits beside the Hawksbury Creek and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, with the Blue Ridge on one side and the long ridge of Massanutten on the other. Its main street is lined with brick shops, cafes and diners, and this is a good place for a long lunch and a stretch after the slow miles of Skyline Drive. About five thousand people live here, enough to keep a few bakeries, a couple of decent restaurants, and a handful of antique shops open, and it is easy to find a table at a reasonable hour.
Southern Virginia cooking is the thing to look for. Expect barbecue, biscuits and country ham, fried chicken and apple pie, along with local cider and, increasingly, craft beer. The valley is orchard country, and in autumn the roadside stands sell apples, pumpkins and cider donuts by the bag.
The road up to the mountain begins right at the edge of town, and US 211 climbs through Thornton Gap in a series of long, smooth curves, with the forest closing in on both sides. It is a good road, though it carries lots of traffic in the leaf season, and the wildlife in the Gap is plentiful. Take it slowly in the damp, because fallen leaves and fog catch people out. The valley roads to the south, along the river and through the farmland, are quieter and flatter, and give a different kind of day.
Fuel is easy in Luray, with several stations on the main roads, so this is a good place to fill up before or after the Drive. Parking in town is simple, and the caverns have their own big lot. Mount Jackson and Woodstock, further up the valley, offer more services. Summer weekends can be crowded around the caves, so go early, or on a weekday.
- Back to Front
finish
Front Royal sits where the north fork of the Shenandoah River slides out of the valley, and it is the northern gate of Skyline Drive, the one hundred and five mile road that runs along the crest of the Blue Ridge through Shenandoah National Park. The town of fifteen thousand is a tidy place with a small-town main street, a bandstand and a long Civil War memory. The Confederate spy Belle Boyd, still a teenager, famously carried information to General Stonewall Jackson here in 1862, and the town changed hands several times during the war.
Skyline Drive itself was built in the 1930s, much of it by young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps, as a motor road that would let ordinary Americans see the mountains. It climbs from the valley to the ridge in a few kilometres, then follows the crest, with overlooks facing east over the Piedmont and west over the valley and the long line of the Alleghenies. The speed limit is low, thirty-five miles per hour, and strictly kept, which suits a road designed for views rather than speed. The curves are gentle and graceful, and the pavement is good, though a few sections can be damp and shaded, and wet leaves in autumn are slippery.
The wildlife is part of the show. Deer are common along the road, and black bears live in the forest, sometimes crossing the pavement at dusk. A visitor centre near the entrance has maps and information. October is the busiest month, as the forest turns red and orange, and weekends can be slow, so ride on a weekday if you can. Spring brings flowering dogwood and redbud, while summer mornings are often misty. Parts of the Drive close in winter or after storms.
Fuel is the key point. Front Royal has plenty of stations, and the Drive has only limited services, which are seasonal, so fill the tank before you go in. An entrance fee is charged at the gate. Local diners and a few cafes along the main street are good for breakfast, and the town makes a pleasant base for a night before or after the ride.