Blue Ridge Parkway & Shenandoah
Driving from Wilmington, NC to Shenandoah National Park | Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway from Meadows of Dan to Shenandoah National Park | August 2024
The start of our drive from North Carolina to New York was very familiar to other times we’ve left North Carolina and headed North. We planned to take the most direct route up to our favorite Blue Ridge Parkway campground — Rocky Knob — then take the Parkway all the way up to Shenandoah National Park. The only complication we had this time was that this trip had to take place over Labor Day weekend — we were leaving NC on Friday and had to check in to our hotel in NY on Tuesday after Labor Day. We dreaded the potential traffic and crowded campgrounds, but we didn’t really have another choice — I mean, there’s always the coastal route, but it almost seemed like a guarantee that the coast would be busier than the Blue Ridge because of all the major cities on the way.
Because of the holiday, we did one thing we normally never do: we made campground reservations in advance for 3 out of 4 nights so that we’d have one less thing to worry about. We normally don’t do this because we can never plan that far in advance to make such commitments. We were quite fortunate to be able to snag a campground in one of the Shenandoah campgrounds given that we were a little late in making our reservations. With all that squared away, we packed up our hotel in Southport, checked out, grabbed groceries for the weekend, then got on the road heading West!
We made one stop on our way to the Blue Ridge Parkway at a little park in Rockingham, NC where we’ve stopped before. We had a quick lunch and took Charlotte on a short walk. Then we got back on the road and made our way to Virginia. A thunderstorm passed over while we drove, and we wondered if we were in for a rainy night. However, when we arrived on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we were met with incredible views immediately after the storm, with low hanging pockets of clouds in between the peaks. We just had to pull over at the first lookout to take in the view! (Pictured at the top of this post)
We made it to our campground and set up the van at our spot for the evening. The campground was definitely busier than we’re used to seeing it, but there were still plenty of empty spots and it wasn’t too loud. Charlotte led us on a long walk around the campground, and I went for a sunset hike up through the cow pasture and to an overlook. It wasn’t that colorful because of the clouds, but the fresh mountain air was all I wanted after two weeks in the humidity!
The next day, our plan was to drive from Rocky Knob campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Matthew’s Arm Campground, which is the Northernmost campground in Shenandoah. The drive would end up being over 8 hours long, but at least it would all be scenic and low stress, just following the ridgeline. There are also plenty of rest stops on the way anytime we needed a break!
The one stop that Curtis specifically requested was to hike up to Apple Orchard Mountain, which was a prominent peak that he needed for his challenge. After a bit of confusion on where to park, we ended up parking in a pull out right across the road from the service road that goes up to the peak. We all set out to hike to the top, and while Charlotte seemed very motivated and put forth a good effort, the smells on the side of the trail were just too good. In effort to save time, Curtis ran up to the peak and then returned, and we all walked back to the van together. The top was socked in by clouds, but we had a couple good views on our way down as we watched the clouds pass by rapidly.
While the first couple hours of our drive were very foggy, the clouds cleared just in time so that we could enjoy the Northernmost part of the Blue Ridge Parkway — which was all we could ask for, given that last time we drove this stretch, it had rained the whole time so we hadn’t been able to see or do much. Today we enjoyed the views and made another stop for a walk and picnic at the James River visitor center. While our time on the parkway was short, we enjoyed driving each and every mile as we always do.
We entered Shenandoah National Park in the mid-afternoon, and by that point we still had 3 hours to drive to get to our campsite. Between that and the park being more crowded than the parkway, we decided to just push on and drive straight there so we could make it before dark. We did meet that goal, but unfortunately it started raining immediately after we arrived. Charlotte still got one more walk in while I made dinner, and while the park was much more crowded, our overhead fan and the rain drowned out the noise from everyone else (even the people with a full sound system setup), and we had a restful night here. Today’s drive did feel longer than expected, but we were very thankful we had the chance to drive these beautiful roads and that they overall weren’t as busy as we had imagined they would be!
