We needed to make a trip to the Home Depot in Harrisonburg, and knowing it was going to be extremely hot and humid–not a good day to work outside–we decided to make a day trip of it and come back home via the Skyline Drive.
We took Rt. 33 East from Harrisonburg, heading towards the Blue Ridge Mountains.
While the views weren’t quite as spectacular as they usually are due to all of the haze and humidity, it was still nice to be up on the mountain.
Both the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway (further south) run north-south along the crest of the mountains. Sometimes overlooks are on the left side of the road, and sometimes they’re on the right, so there are both east and west views.
East view at the Bacon Hollow Overlook:
Nice play of sunlight along the ridges of the mountains, west of the Skyline Drive.
Massanutten Mountain, near Harrisonburg, is quite the landmark….
We drove through Loft Mountain Campground to check out the various trailers and best campsites, then we walked up to the amphitheater. We could hear distant thunder, and we watched as a storm started moving across the Shenandoah Valley.
When we reached the Mormons River overlook (just above the Sugar Hollow reservoir), it was fascinating to see the rain–torrential rain!–coming down to the east.
The sound you’re hearing in the video clip isn’t thunder, but wind. It was very breezy at the overlook, and the temperature dropped to 70 degrees. Nice!
We were surprised to see fog swirling up between the ridges near the reservoir:
Just a little further south, the Beagle Gap overlook provides a good view of the Crozet area, as well as I-64. I wondered how closely I could zoom in on the interstate with my camera. Pretty close! You can see the Crozet exit from both the eastbound and westbound lanes:
Soon we were at the southern end of the Skyline Drive, and leaving Shenandoah National Park. If we’d continued straight, we would have been on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We love having easy access to both of these scenic drives!
But back down the mountain we went on Rt. 250 East, returning to nearly 100-degree heat and high humidity. At least we enjoyed spending a few hours on the beautiful Skyline Drive!