VACATIONS FROM HOME: REVISITING SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK

COUNTRY ROADS TAKE ME HOME

Recently Team VFH thumbed our masked noses at the COVID pandemic and vacationed in Tennessee. Don’t worry we were smart and wore masks whenever we were in public and spent every day hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Last year the park had 12.5 million visitors, making it the most popular destination in the National Parks system. This year the numbers seem to be as steady despite the pandemic, but despite this pandemic, not a lot of people were wearing masks or practicing “social distancing.” We stayed away from the crowds. There were no rousing foot stomping bluegrass shows in a crowded bar for us on this trip.

CABIN FEVER CURE ALL

We made the best of it though. We rented a car and drove the 600 plus miles from our house to Sevierville, Tennessee, just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, taking two days each way. The hiking was great, if crowded in spots, and the sunsets while soaking in the hot tub were spectacular. It was a relaxing trip as we substituted the cabin fever we had at home with a cabin on a mountainside.

MAIN BUILDING AT
BIG MEADOWS

On the way down to Tennessee we stayed overnight with a friend in Harrisonburg, Virginia. We mostly drove on the speedy Route 81, anxious to get to our destination. We took a somewhat slower route home, getting off Route 81 to enter Shenandoah National Park at Swift Run, the second of four entrances to this beautiful park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We drove along Skyline drive, a two-lane road that mostly skirts the tops of the mountains that runs the entire 105-mile length of Shenandoah National Park. Along this picturesque stretch of road there are several overlooks offering stunning views of the Shenandoah Valley to the west and the Piedmont to the east. The Appalachian Trail, which starts in Georgia and ends in Maine also goes along the crests of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the length of SNP.

VIEW OF THE PIEDMONT

The Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains and are so named from the bluish hue when seen from a distance. The fertile rolling hills of the Piedmont are to the east and stretch all the way to the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

We stayed overnight in Shenandoah National Park at Big Meadows, a privately run lodge inside the park. At Big Meadows there is a restaurant, bar, gift shop and rustic cabins for rent. Because of the COVID pandemic the lodge opened late in the season. When we stayed there in late June, it was the first day it had reopened.

BBQ AND SERENDIPITY

We had done this very stop once before, in 2007. We had gone on a meandering road trip after a week’s stay in Rodanthe on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We attempted to eat our way along the North Carolina Historical Barbeque Trail, that runs from Ayden to Murphy. We lasted two days, and couldn’t eat anymore. So, we headed north and picked up the Blue Ridge Highway and then the Skyline Drive and stayed at Big Meadows. The funny thing was this route was not planned and Janet had always envisioned the Blue Ridge mountains as some unattainable distant destination. It turns out the northern end of the Shenandoah National Park at Front Royal, Virginia is just 75 miles from Washington, D.C. Big Meadows is just 250 miles from our middle-class garret in Collegeville PA.

NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL BBQ TRAIL

So, knowing how enjoyable and beautiful the ride was we decided to drive it again, although in deference to the much greater distance from Sevierville, Tennessee to Big Meadows we drove a lot of it on the speedy Route 81. Going north the inviting beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains is to the right.

YOU CAN GET THERE FROM HERE

The Blue Ridge Mountains actually start in the Great Smoky Mountains and it is possible, although not feasible (because we HAD to get somewhere), to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic two-lane highway that runs 485 miles from the border of the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, to the southern end of Shenandoah National Park at Waynesboro.

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

Cherokee is the capital of the Eastern Band of the sovereign Cherokee nation and was just 20 miles from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which was near to where we were staying. Though I gave Janet the pleading big eyes she demanded we drive as much as possible along the very speedy Route 81 and enter Shenandoah National Park as near to Big Meadows as possible.

On another road trip I should like to visit Cherokee. The sad ending to Werner Herzog’s 1977 tragic-comedy Stroszek was filmed there.

CHEROKEE NATION

The Blue Ridge Parkway ends at Waynesboro where the Shenandoah National Park and the Skyline Drive begins and stretches all the way to Front Royal. There is an entrance fee to enter the park. $30 for a 7-day pass for unlimited entry into Shenandoah, but we bought a lifetime Senior Citizens discount that affords us unlimited entry to all United States parks for $80. The cabin we rented at Big Meadows was $112 plus taxes and fees. Everyone at Big Meadows wore masks. There was a massive wait for seating at the restaurant so we opted to sit outside for beers and bar pies for dinner.

OUR CABIN AT BIG MEADOWS

When we exited Shenandoah there was a very long line of traffic trying to enter the park. For the 100 miles plus in the park it is very rural, but animals are used to people. Black bears are around, there was one rummaging in the woods along the entrance road to the lodge and a brazen deer tried to photo bomb us as we tried to capture the vista as we lingered over beers. When we were having our morning coffee at Big Meadows, we were watched by a majestic Barred Owl, who didn’t flinch no matter how closely we approached. Yet, as soon as we left Shenandoah National Park we were in the town of Front Royal.

SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK