Shenandoah National Park

After our experience in the Smoky Mountain range of the Appalachians last year, we knew that we would enjoy ourselves if we could camp again in those mountains. We were ultimately headed for Maine this year, but Shenandoah National Park in Virginia had been something we had heard about for years and was on our path to the Northeast, so we decided to stay 3 nights in the Loft Mountain Campground at the south end of this park. The park itself is approximately 100 miles long, but very narrow, and the only road to access hiking trails, vistas, and waterfalls is a very winding, slow park road that follows the mountain ridge through the park. Loft Mountain Campground was a good hour-long drive south of the Visitor Center and main area of the park, but from the internet reviews we read, was the most quiet and wooded/scenic campground in the park. Plus there was this one campsite, A10A that was reviewed many times and looked very beautiful, so we decided to reserve that site and see what happened. As you can see from the pictures, the view from this campsite is second to none and it instantly rose to near the top of our favorite camp sites in any campground ever. We have never camped on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a beautiful valley like this. We HIGHLY recommend to anyone that you reserve this exact site and camp in this park! It’s not necessarily our favorite national park in America, but this camp site makes it worth the visit, and our upcoming blog post about the Old Rag Mountain hike explains our other favorite memory from this park.

This campground and park epitomize why we like to camp and spend time in the great outdoors. It was an instant breath of fresh air as soon as we arrived in this peaceful, inspiring location. We were so grateful that we had purchased two ENO hammocks for this trip, because we were all vying for some ENO time at this camp site! It was just too perfect. We had no fixed agenda, barely any cell phone service, and an amazing view to enjoy from the comfort of our site. Our time in this campsite set our family vacation off on the right foot, for sure! It’s hard to explain the peace and joy that settles into your soul when you get to hang between two trees in a comfy hammock and watch the sun set over a valley far below while listening to the kids chuckle and make up games by a crackling campfire that they lit with their own ingenuity and a stick of magnesium.

The view just past my boots at the top of this page is the famed Appalachian Trail, which passed right by our campsite and gave us a glimpse into wilderness life. Our campground was also a waypoint along the trail and offered pay showers, a camp store, and welcome human interaction for multiple lone “AT” hikers per day. It made us all wonder what life along the trail would be like, if you were able to take the 3-6 month 2100+ mile journey.

The most harrowing and (retrospectively) fun experience of this entire camping episode was when a severe thunderstorm crashed upon us in the middle of the night. That’s a first for all of our months of tent camping and it was a rough one! Thankfully it only lasted 30 minutes or so, but it was whipping our tent and blowing mist in through the zippers of our enclosed windows. We thought the tent might collapse under the pressure. The rapid lightning strikes, instant and rattling thunder, blasting rainfall, and sheer winds had us all huddling close and hoping for the best. Thank the Lord, once again our amazing tent was more than enough to face the task and we stayed dry and safe, with another great story to talk about in the morning. All-in-all, we loved Shenandoah and would do it again in a heartbeat!