After packing up the trailer, we headed out of Hickory Hollow Campground and headed south on a country road to the Twilight Zone! I'm calling it that because this is the place where these odd appendages of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia all converge. Traveling south from Hickory Hollow, we went through farm land and dairies. We drove past this old farm that had an old silo that was made from large brick. The country road that we were on ended into a highway called the "Mason-Dixon Line Highway". It has also carries the name "Flight 93 Memorial Highway". The countryside was beautiful. Sugar maple, American beech, yellow birch, red maple, black cherry, bitternut hickory and other species of trees were in full foliage mode. We crossed over several rivers including the Shenandoah River and the Potomac River. Imagine it! A river without a cement bottom and sides (like in L.A.)!


The Skyline Drive is the only road in the Shenandoah National Park, which is built on the crest of the northern Blue Ridge Mountain. The road is 105 miles long, riding the ridge with the Shenandoah Valley to the West and the Piedmont Valley to the east. There are 75 turnouts with viewpoints. There were times, that the road of the only flat spot on the mountain ~ the shoulder on both sides sloped down over 2,000 feet to the valleys below. We entered the park at Front Royal, VA.  


In the Visitors Center, we learned that the first tunnel for the Drive as only 12'8" high. Our 5th wheel trailer is 12'6", so it look like we were going to have to go back to the interstate. However, when the ranger showed us a schematic of the tunnel, it is 12'8" on the sides, but the tunnel arches in the middle. So, there was no problem for us to go through the tunnel, we would just drive down the middle of the road. The view from the Visitors Center was fantastic!
 

The road was planned in 1924 when they were planning a new park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The road through Shenandoah National Park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. The young men of the CCC who had built the road are honored by this statue at the Harry F. Byrd Sr. Visitors Center at Big Meadow turnout.

 

 

 We are only attaching a few pictures from the turnouts. With the position of the sun, the valleys were hazy. While the panorama view was fantastic, when we took pictures, they did not do the view justice. The full foliage and spring flowers in full bloom, plus the view of the valley and thunderheads that were forming were beautiful!

 

During the next couple of days, we will drive the Blue Ridge Parkway that picks up as soon as the Skyline Drive ends at Waynesboro, VA. We'll get some better pictures.