Location: Front Royal, VA Map
Area: 199,017 acres (805.39 km2)
Shenandoah National Park covers an area of 199,017 acres (805.39 km2) of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the state of Virginia in the United States. Shenandoah National Park spans part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the foothills of the state of Virginia. The highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain, which rises to 1,235 meters. Shenandoah National Park is famous for the road called Skyline Drive which runs through the park for 169 km. It is mostly frequented in the fall, when the leaves of the trees change color. The park has several paths such as a section of the Appalachian Trail among the 800 km of trails in the park. There are also ten waterfalls and camping opportunities, horseback riding, etc.
Mammals include Whitetail Deer, American Black Bear, Bobcat, Raccoon, Skunk, Northern Opossum, Red and Gray Fox, and Florida Cottontail. More than 200 species of birds live in the park, of which about 30 species hibernate here. 32 species of fish live in the waters of the park.
Shenandoah National Park is
one of the NPS units that charge an entry fee. The following fee
types are available:
1-7 days per vehicle: $10 Dec-Feb, $15
Mar-Nov
1-7 days per motorcycle: $10
1-7 day per person (e.g.
visiting by bicycle, bus): $5 Dec-Feb, $8 Mar-Nov
Annual pass
(may be signed by up to two people): $30
There are several passes
for groups traveling together in a private vehicle or individuals on
foot or on bike. These passes provide free entry at national parks
and national wildlife refuges, and also cover standard amenity fees
at national forests and grasslands, and at lands managed by the
Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation. These passes
are valid at all national parks including Shenandoah National Park:
The $80 Annual Pass (valid for twelve months from date of issue)
can be purchased by anyone. Military personnel can obtain a free
annual pass in person at a federal recreation site by showing a
Common Access Card (CAC) or Military ID.
U.S. citizens or
permanent residents age 62 or over can obtain a Senior Pass (valid
for the life of the holder) in person at a federal recreation site
for $80, or through the mail for $90; applicants must provide
documentation of citizenship and age. This pass also provides a
fifty percent discount on some park amenities. Seniors can also
obtain a $20 annual pass.
U.S. citizens or permanent residents
with permanent disabilities can obtain an Access Pass (valid for the
life of the holder) in person at a federal recreation site at no
charge, or through the mail for $10; applicants must provide
documentation of citizenship and permanent disability. This pass
also provides a fifty percent discount on some park amenities.
Individuals who have volunteered 250 or more hours with federal
agencies that participate in the Interagency Pass Program can
receive a free Volunteer Pass.
4th graders can receive an Annual
4th Grade Pass that allows free entry for the duration of the 4th
grade school year (September-August) to the bearer and any
accompanying passengers in a private non-commercial vehicle.
Registration at the Every Kid in a Park website is required.
In
2018 the National Park Service will offer four days on which entry
is free for all national parks: January 15 (Martin Luther King Jr.
Day), April 21 (1st Day of NPS Week), September 22 (National Public
Lands Day), and November 11 (Veterans Day weekend).
The park covers parts of eight counties. On the west side of Skyline Drive lie, from northeast to southwest, Warren, Page, Rockingham, and Augusta counties. On the eastern side of Skyline Drive are Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, and Albemarle counties. The park stretches for 169 km along Skyline Drive from near the city of Front Royal in the northeast to near the city of Waynesboro in the southwest. The park headquarters is located in Luray.
Shenandoah National Park is located along the Blue Ridge in
north-central Virginia. These mountains form a distinct altiplano that
rises to elevations above 1,200 m. The local topographic relief between
the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah Valley exceeds 910 m in places. The
crest of the range divides the Shenandoah River watershed, part of the
Potomac River watershed, on the west side, from the James and
Rappahannock River watersheds on the east side.
Some of the
exposed rocks in the park date back more than 1 billion years, making
them the oldest in Virginia. The bedrock in the park includes granitic
basement rocks of the Grenville age (1.2 to 1.0 billion years) and a
bedrock sequence of metamorphosed Neoproterozoic sedimentary and
volcanic rocks (570 to 550 million years) of the Swift Run and Catoctin.
Columns of metamorphosed basalt from the Catoctina Formation can be seen
at Compton Peak. The clastic rocks of the Chilhowee group are of early
Cambrian age (542 to 520 million years). Quaternary surface deposits are
common and cover much of the bedrock throughout the park.
The
park is located along the western part of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium,
a regional-scale Paleozoic structure on the eastern margin of the
Appalachian fold-thrust belt. The rocks within the park were bent,
faulted, distorted, and metamorphosed during the Aleganian orogeny of
the late Paleozoic (325 to 260 million years ago). The rugged topography
of the Cordillera Azul is the result of differential erosion during the
Cenozoic, although Some post-Paleozoic tectonic activity occurred in the
region.
creation of the park
Legislation to create a national park in the
Appalachian Mountains was first introduced by Virginia freshman
Congressman Henry D. Flood in 1901, but despite support from President
Theodore Roosevelt, it failed to pass. The first national park was
Yellowstone, in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Signed into law in 1872.
Yosemite National Park was created in 1890. By the time Congress created
the National Park Service (SPN) in 1916, additional parks had maintained
the western pattern (Crater Lake in 1902, Wind Cave in 1903, Mesa Green
in 1906, then Denali in 1917). Grand Canyon, Zion and Acadia were
created in 1919 during the administration of Virginia-born President
Woodrow Wilson. Acadia finally broke the western mold and became the
first national park in the east. It also relied on donations from
wealthy private landowners. Stephen Mather, SPN's first director, saw a
need for a national park in the southern states and called for proposals
in his 1923 year-end report. In May 1925, Congress and President Calvin
Coolidge authorized the NPS to acquire a minimum of 1,011.7 km² and a
maximum of 2,108.4 km² to form the Shenandoah National Park, and also
authorized the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
However, the legislation also required that no federal funds be used to
acquire the land. Therefore, Virginia needed to raise private funds and
could also authorize state funds and use its power of eminent domain
(convict) to acquire the land to create Shenandoah National Park.
Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate (and nephew of the late
Congressman Flood) Harry F. Byrd supported the creation of Shenandoah
National Park, as did his friend William E. Carson, a businessman who
had become the first chairman of the Virginia Conservation and
Development Commission. Development of the western national parks had
aided tourism, which created jobs, which Byrd and local politicians
supported. The land that became Shenandoah Park was scenic, hilly, and
had also lost about half its trees to chestnut blight (which was
incurable and affected the trees when they reached maturity). However,
it had been kept as private property for over a century, so many farms
and orchards existed. After Byrd became governor and convinced the
legislature to appropriate $1 million for land acquisition and other
work, Carson and his teams (including the surveyors and his brother Kit,
who was Byrd's law partner) tried to find out who owned the land. They
discovered that it consisted of more than 5,000 parcels, some of them
inhabited by tenant farmers or squatters (who were not eligible for
compensation). Some landowners, including wealthy resort owner George
Freeman Pollock and Luray Realtor and developer L. Ferdinand Zerkel, had
long wanted the park created and had formed the Northern Virginia Parks
Association to win the support of the park. national parks selection
committee. However, many local families who had lived in the area for
generations (especially those over the age of 60) did not want to sell
their land and some refused to sell it at any price. Carson promised
that if they sold to the Commonwealth, they would still be able to live
off their farms for the rest of their lives. Carson also lobbied the new
president, Herbert Hoover, who bought land to establish a vacation
fishing camp near the headwaters of the Rapidan River (and would
eventually donate it to the park when he left office; it remains Rapidan
Camp).
The Commonwealth of Virginia slowly acquired the land
through eminent domain and then gave it to the United States federal
government to establish the national park. Carson's brother suggested
that the Virginia legislature authorize eminent domain by counties
(followed by arbitration for individual parcels) rather than condemn
each parcel. Some families accepted the payments because they needed the
money and wanted to escape the subsistence lifestyle. Almost 90% of the
inhabitants worked the land to earn a living: selling wood, charcoal or
crops. They had previously been able to earn money to buy supplies by
harvesting the now rare chestnuts, working during the apple and peach
harvest season (but the 1930 drought devastated those crops and killed
many fruit trees), selling textiles, and handmade crafts. (displaced by
factories) and moonshine (illegal after Prohibition began).
However, Carson and the politicians did not seek input from citizens
early in the process, nor did they convince them that they could live
better in a tourist economy. Instead, they started with a fundraising ad
campaign and courthouse property appraisals and surveys. Following
Mather's death in 1929, SPN's new director, Horace M. Albright, also
decided that the federal agency would only accept vacant land, so even
older residents would be forced to leave. Thus, many families and entire
communities were forced to abandon parts of the Blue Ranges in eight
Virginia counties. Although the Skyline Drive right-of-way was purchased
from the owners without eminent domain, the costs of the acreage
purchased tripled from initial estimates and acreage declined to what
Carson called a "herringbone" and other forms, a "budget tape". Although
Byrd and Carson convinced Congress to reduce the minimum size of
Shenandoah Park to just over 200 acres to eliminate some high-priced
land, in 1933 newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to
also create the Blue Ridge Parkway to connect with Skyline Drive under
construction on the ridge of Shenandoah National Park, which required
additional convictions.
When many families continued to refuse to
sell their land in 1932 and 1933, the proponents changed tack. Freeman
hired social worker Miriam Sizer to teach at a summer school she had set
up near one of her worker communities and asked her to write a report on
the conditions in which they lived. Although later discredited, the
report described the local population as very poor and inbred and was
soon used to support forced evictions and the burning of old huts so
that residents would not sneak back. University of Chicago sociologists
Fay-Cooper Cole and Mandel Sherman described how small valley or hollow
communities had existed "without contact with law or government" for
centuries, which some equated to a popular comic strip Li' l Abner and
his fictional community, Dogpatch. In 1933, Sherman and journalist
Thomas Henry published Hollow Folk drawing sympathetic eyes on local
conditions and "farmers". As in many rural areas of the time, most
remote farms in Shenandoah lacked electricity and often often running
water, as well as access to schools and health facilities for many
months. However, Hoover had hired experienced rural teacher Christine
Vest to teach near her summer home (and that she believed other reports
were exaggerated, as were Episcopalian missionary teachers in other
areas of the Blue Ridge).
Carson had had ambitions to become
governor in 1929 and 1933, but Byrd selected George C. Peery of the
southwestern Virginia region to succeed Pollard east. After winning the
election, Peery and Carson's successor would establish the Virginia
state park system, though plans to relocate reluctant residents kept
changing and basically failed. Carson had hoped to head that new state
agency, but was not selected because of his growing differences with
Byrd, because of the fees he owed his brother, and especially because of
the evictions that began in late 1933 against his advice but in
accordance with new federal policies and that they got a lot of negative
publicity.
Most of the reluctant families came from the park's
central counties (Madison, Page, and Rappahannock), not from the
northern counties closest to the Byrd and Carson bases, or from the far
south where residents could see the benefits of tourism. at Thomas
Jefferson's Monticello since the 1920s, as well as jobs available in
Shenandoah and new Blue Ridge projects. In 1931 and 1932, the residents
were allowed to petition the state agency to stay an extra year to
gather crops, etc. However, some refused to cooperate to any extent,
others wanted to continue using now-protected resources (including
timber or houses and gardens vacated by others), and many found the
permitting process arbitrary. Businessman Robert H. Via sued the eminent
domain in 1934 but did not prevail (and he ended up moving to
Pennsylvania and never cashed his eminent domain check).
Carson
announced his resignation from his unpaid job effective in December
1934. As one of his final acts, Carson wrote to SPN's new director, Arno
B. Cammerer, urging that 60 people over the age of 60 whose plots were
not visible from the new Skyline Drive not to be evicted. When the
evictions continued to create negative publicity in 1935, photographer
Arthur Rothstein coordinated with the Hollow Folk authors, then went on
to document the conditions they claimed.
The creation of the park
had immediate benefits for some Virginians. During the Great Depression,
many young people received training and jobs through the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC). The first CCC camp in Virginia was established
in the George Washington National Forest near Luray, and Governor
Pollard quickly filled his initial quota of 5,000 workers. Nearly 1,000
men and boys worked on Skyline Drive, and about 100,000 worked in
Virginia during the agency's existence. In Shenandoah Park, CCC crews
removed many of the dead chestnut trees whose skeletons marred views in
the new park , as well as built trails and facilities. Tourism revenues
also skyrocketed. On the other hand, CCC crews were assigned to burn and
destroy some cabins in the park, to prevent residents from returning. In
addition, the United States Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes,
who had jurisdiction over the SPN and partial jurisdiction over the CCC,
attempted to use his authority to force Byrd to cooperate on other New
Deal projects.
Shenandoah National Park was finally established
on December 26, 1935, and construction soon began on the Blue Ridge
Parkway that Byrd wanted. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formally
dedicated Shenandoah National Park on July 3, 1936. Finally, about 40
people (on the "Ickes list") were allowed to live out their lives on the
land that became the park. One of these was George Freeman Pollock,
whose Killahevlin residence was later listed on the National Register,
and whose Skyland Resort reopened under a grantee in 1937. Carson also
donated significant land; a mountain in the park is now named after him
and billboards acknowledge his contributions. Granny's last resident was
Annie Lee Bradley Shenk. NPS employees had nursed and cared for her
since 1950; she died in 1979 at age 92. Most of the others left in
silence. Hezekiah Lam, 85, explained: "I'm not that crazy to leave these
hills, but I never believed in being against the government. I signed
everything they asked me to."
In the early 1930s, the National Park Service began planning for park
facilities and made separate provisions for blacks and whites. At that
time, in Jim Crow Virginia, racial segregation was the order of the day.
In its transfer of the park to the federal government, Virginia
initially attempted to ban African Americans from the park entirely, but
settled for enforcing its segregation laws on park facilities.
By
the 1930s, there were several concessions operated by private companies
within the area that would become the park, some dating back to the late
19th century. These first private facilities at Skyland Resort, Panorama
Resort, and Swift Run Gap were operated for whites only. In 1937, the
Park Service accepted an offer from the Virginia Sky-Line Company to
take over existing facilities and add new lodges, cabins, and other
amenities, including Big Meadows Lodge. Under his plan, all but one park
site was "whites only." His plan included a separate facility for
African Americans on Lewis Mountain: a picnic area, a smaller lodge,
cabins, and a campground. The site opened in 1939 and was substantially
inferior to the other park facilities. By then, however, the Department
of the Interior was becoming increasingly eager to desegregate all
parks. The Pinnacles Picnic Area was selected to be the initial
integrated site in Shenandoah, but the Virginia Sky-Line Company
continued to resist, distributing maps showing Lewis Mountain as the
only site for African Americans. During World War II, the concessions
closed and use of the park plummeted. But once the war ended, in
December 1945, the SPN ordered that all concessions in all national
parks be segregated. In October 1947 the Lewis Mountain and Panorama
mess halls were integrated and by early 1950 the mandate was fully
fulfilled.
Particularly after the 1960s, park operations expanded from
nature-focused to include social history. The Potomac Appalachian Trail
Club had restored some cabins from the 1940s and made them available to
overnight hikers. Some displaced residents (and their descendants)
created Children of the Shenandoah to push for more balanced
presentations.
In the 1990s, the park hired cultural resource
specialists and conducted an archaeological inventory of existing
structures, the Rural Mountain Settlement Survey. Finally, the park's
new focus on cultural resources coincided with agitation by a descendant
organization known as the Sons of Shenandoah, which resulted in the
removal of questionable interpretive exhibits. Walks and tours began
that explained the social history of the displaced mountaineers.
Skyline Drive
The park is best known for Skyline Drive, a 169 km
road that runs through the park along the crest of the mountains. 100
miles of the Appalachian Trail is also in the park. In total, there are
more than 800 km of trails within the park. There is also horseback
riding, camping, biking and a series of waterfalls. Skyline Drive is the
first National Park Service road east of the Mississippi River to be
listed as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of
Historic Places. It is also designated as a National Scenic Byway.
wild camping
Shenandoah National Park offers 793.2 km² of
wilderness and wilderness camping. While in the field, campers must use
a "Leave No Trace" policy that includes burying droppings and not
building campfires.25
Wilderness campers should also watch out
for wildlife like bears and poisonous snakes. Campers should suspend
their food from trees while not using it in park-approved "bear bags" or
bear canisters to avoid inadvertently feeding bears, which otherwise
habituate humans and their food and thus They could become dangerous.
All animals are protected by federal law.
Camps and cabins
Most of the camps are open from April to October
and November. There are five main camps:
Camp Mathews Arm
Camp Big
Meadows
Camp Lewis Mountain
Camp Loft Mountain
Dundo Group Camp
There are three lodges/cabins:
Skyland Resort
Big Meadows
Lewis Mountain Cabins
The cabins are located in Skyland and Big
Meadows. The park's Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center is also located in Big
Meadows. Another visitor center is located at Dickey Ridge. Campgrounds
are located on Mathews Arm, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain, and Loft
Mountain.
Rapidan Camp, the restored presidential fishing retreat
that Herbert Hoover built on the Rapidan River in 1929, is accessed by a
4-mile round-trip walk on the Mill Prong Trail, beginning at Skyline
Drive in Milam Gap (Mile 52.8). SPN also offers guided van tours that
depart from the Byrd Center in Big Meadows.
Shenandoah National
Park is one of the most dog-friendly in the national park system. All
campgrounds allow dogs, and dogs are allowed on almost all trails,
including the Appalachian Trail, if they are kept on a leash (6 feet or
less). Dogs are not allowed on ten trails: Fox Hollow Trail, Stony Man
Trail, Limberlost Trail, Post Office Crossing to Old Rag Shelter, Old
Rag Ridge Trail, Old Rag Saddle Trail, Dark Hollow Falls Trail, Story of
the Forest Trail , Bearfence Mountain Trail, Frazier Discovery Trail.
These ten trails do not total 20 miles of Shenandoah National Park's 500
miles of trails.
The streams and rivers in the park are very
popular with native brook trout fly anglers.
Many waterfalls are found within the park boundaries. Below is a list of major drops.
Overall Run
Mile 21.1, parking lot south of Hogback Overlook
The highest waterfall in the park. Round trip walk of 10 km. Go before
June, as this waterfall tends to dry out.
whiteoak canyon
Mile
42.6, Whiteoak Canyon Parking Area
Whiteoak Canyon has a series of
six waterfalls, the first (and highest) 28m. Not all of the falls are
easily accessible from the trail. Start at the lowest and work your way
up to the highest waterfall.
Cedar Run
Mile 45.6, Hawksbill
Gap Parking Area
Difficult 5 km round trip hike. Sights along the way
include waterfalls, swimming holes, and natural rock slides of varying
lengths.
Rose River
Mile 49.4, parking lot at Fishers Gap
Overlook
A round trip walk of 4 km. Can also be done as a longer loop
hike.
Dark Hollow Falls
Mile 50.7, Dark Hollow Falls Parking
Area
2 km round trip walk. The closest waterfall to Skyline Drive and
the most popular. Pets are not allowed on this trail.
Lewis Falls
Mile 51.4, parking lot south of Big Meadows, next to a service road
Round trip walk of 3 km.
South River Falls
Mile 62.8, park at
the South River Picnic Area
5 km circular walk to a viewpoint over
the falls. There is also a 2 km round trip rocky trail that goes to the
base of the falls. The "shortcut" is before the lookout, but watch out
for water snakes as they are very common in this area.
Doyles
River Falls
Mile 81.1, Doyles River Parking Area
A 3-mile round
trip hike to see the upper and lower falls. Be sure to go just past the
lower falls lookout point for a better view. Can also be converted to a
12.6 km loop trail that also passes Jones Run Falls
Jones Run
Falls
Milepost 84.1, Jones Run Parking Area
A round trip hike of
5.8 km. Can also be turned into a longer loop hike that passes the upper
and lower falls of the Doyles River
Hiking trails
Dark Hollow
Falls Trail
Starting at mile marker 50.7 of Skyline Drive near
the Byrd Visitor Center, the Dark Hollow Falls Trail leads downhill
alongside Hogcamp Branch to Dark Hollow Falls, a 70-foot waterfall. The
distance from the trailhead to the base of the falls is 0.7 miles,
although the trail continues beyond that point, crossing the creek and
connecting to the Rose River fire road. Various wildlife can be seen
along along the trail, including occasional sightings of black bears and
timber rattlesnakes. While the trail is relatively short, parts of it
are steep and can be challenging for some visitors. There is no view
from the edge of the falls and the slippery rocks make it inadvisable to
leave the trail.
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Shenandoah National Park has a temperate continental climate with hot summers and no dry season (Dfb). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the plant hardiness zone at the Big Meadows Visitor Center (1071 m) is 6a with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -7.1 °F (-21.7 °C).
The park's climate and flora and fauna are typical of the montane
regions of the eastern Mid-Atlantic forest, while many of the common
species are also typical of ecosystems at lower altitudes. A. W.
Kuchler's potential natural vegetation type for the park is Appalachian
oak (104) within a vegetation form of eastern hardwood forest (25), also
known as temperate broadleaf and mixed forest.
Pine trees
dominate the southwest faces of some of the southernmost slopes, where
the occasional cactus may also grow naturally. By contrast, some of the
northeastern aspects are more likely to have small but dense stands of
spruce and moisture-loving mosses in abundance. Other commonly found
plants include oak, hickory, chestnut, maple, tulip poplar, mountain
laurel, milkweed, daisies, and many species of ferns. The once
predominant American chestnut was effectively wiped out by a fungus
known as chestnut blight during the 1930s; although the tree continues
to grow in the park, it does not reach maturity and dies before it can
reproduce. Various oak species replaced chestnuts and became the
dominant tree species. Gypsy moth infestations beginning in the early
1990s began to erode the dominance of oak woodlands, as the moths would
primarily consume oak leaves. Although gypsy moths appear to have
diminished, they continue to affect the forest and have destroyed almost
ten percent of the oak stands.35
Mammals include black bear, coyote, striped skunk, spotted skunk, raccoon, beaver, river otter, opossum, woodchuck, two species of fox, white-tailed deer, and cottontail. Although unsubstantiated, some sightings of pumas have been reported in remote areas of the park. More than 200 species of birds live in the park for at least part of the year. About thirty live in the park year-round, including the barred owl, Carolina chickadee, red-tailed hawk, and wild turkey. The peregrine falcon was reintroduced to the park in the mid-1990s, and by the late 20th century, there were numerous nesting pairs in the park. Thirty-two species of fish have been documented in the park, including brook trout. , the eastern longnose and blacknose trout, and the bluehead chub.
The park rangers host various programs from spring through fall. These include ranger-led walks, as well as discussions of history, flora, and fauna. Shenandoah Live is an online series where listeners can chat live with park rangers and learn about some of the park's features. Rangers discuss a wide range of topics while answering questions and speaking with experts in the field.
In 2014, under the leadership of Superintendent Jim Northup, Shenandoah National Park established an Artist-in-Residence Program administered by the Shenandoah National Park Trust, the park's philanthropic partner. Photographer Sandy Long was selected as the first artist-in-residence from the park. The results of Long's residency were featured in the "Wild Beauty: The Artistic Nature of Shenandoah National Park" photography exhibition held at the Looking Glass Art Gallery in the historic Hawley Silk Mill, in Hawley, Pennsylvania.