Favorite Road

Skyline Drive

This week Mersad asks us, "What is your favorite road or street from your town?" I puzzled over the question for a while and started scrolling through pictures when it jumped out at me: Skyline Drive! It doesn't exactly run through our town, but it starts at the Front Royal's southern town boundary.  The town shares several miles of boundary with Shenandoah National Park. Long distance hikers on the Appalachian Trail walk through town all the time, picking up supplies or enjoying a restaurant meal and perhaps even a hotel room with hot showers.

The first overlook on Skyline Drive (if you enter at the northern entry gate) provides a view of part of town.

The drive runs 105 miles, the length of Shenandoah National Park. It is known for it's scenic beauty and recreational opportunities, particularly hiking. It is primarily a park road, not a commuter route. The speed limit is 35 miles per hour, with slower limits at sharp curves and busy recreational areas. 

The overlooks are popular and just about everyone stops to take a picture. I have hundreds of pictures taken along the drive, maybe thousands. Since I have a senior pass to enter National Parks, I am able to go up on the drive often. Usually I visit the northern section because it is close to home.

We are privileged to be able to live in such a beautiful area.

Sharing with Weekend Green and Scenic Weekends

Orange You Glad It's Friday?

The final photo is from March and I took it from Strasburg. I want to show it to you because the snow reveals the road cuts along Skyline Drive. See the white lines on the mountain?  Those are snow-covered rocks which were cut and blasted when the Drive was constructed in the 1930's.

I have looked out from one of the overlooks, most likely on one of those white lines that you see here, and have seen a line of buildings in Strasburg in the far distance. The line is vague and usually hazy, but pictures I took on a clear day can be enlarged until I make out the shape of a hotel that I recognize. It's not very far from the Denny's parking lot where I took this picture. Anyway, those lines show you where Skyline Drive runs along the Blue Ridge. This is just a small portion of the road; my guess is that it is part of the first seven miles. Around milepost 8 the road crosses to the east side of the mountain for about 6 miles.  After that it twists and turns in various directions and I lose track, but you can't get lost on the road because access is limited.

Did I tell you I love Skyline Drive? I've visited it many times starting when my parents took me there as a child. We lived in Northern Virginia and it was an easy day trip. Now it's so close I go up just to have a snack, take in a few views, and listen to the wind.