This past weekend my family and I took a fun weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park. It’s a short two hour drive from the DC area to Shenandoah and there are lots of beautiful lodges to spend the night. We stayed at Skyland Resort and had an amazing time!
Skyland Resort is located at mile marker 41. My sister booked the Pinnacles Rooms for us and the rooms were lovely! The rooms offer a great view of the sunset and are conveniently located near the main building. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Pollock Dining Room, be sure to order the delicious Blackberry Ice Cream Pie for dessert! We also went back for breakfast and ordered the delicious blackberry pancakes! I wish I could bottle of the compote and bring it home with me – it’s absolutely delicious!
Since check in at the resort is at 3pm we decided to do a hike before checking in. An easy hike near the hotel is Rose River Falls at Mile Marker 49.4. You can park directly across the trail at Fisher’s Gap Parking. The hike is super easy to do with kids. The trail is not to steep and there is a lovely waterfall at the end. We were lucky enough to spot 3 black bears on our hike! It was scary but also really cool!
Shenandoah’s Skyline Drive has a ton of overlooks. One of the first overlooks with a great view to stop at is Range View Overlook at mile marker 17.1.
Another great spot for an overlook is Hogback Overlook at mile marker 20.8.
Shenandoah is a fun, quick, peaceful weekend getaway from DC. Lucky for us we chose to go on the weekend that it was extremely hot in DC. The weather was perfect in Shenandoah, a great escape from the heat!
Wow this is beautiful! I am always looking for new places to check out that are realitvely close in driving time.
I highly recommend it!! It’s not that bad of a drive and there is so much outdoor fun for the kiddos. My nephew spent 30 minutes playing in the waterfall, he had a blast!