The southern entrance to Shenandoah National Park is about two hours away, which would be feasible as a day trip, but between hiking and driving Skyline Drive, it’s more than we want to pack in. Instead, we stayed overnight in Staunton before and after so we could enjoy the park without having to worry about a long drive home.

While we only spent a day in the park, it could easily be a two- or three-day trip (or longer) for someone coming from out of town and not wanting to through-hike. The park itself is 90 miles long and has over 500 miles of trails. We drove about a third of the way into the park, stopping at overlooks and hiking three trails.

April 23

We arrived at the park shortly after sunrise and stopped at the first overlook, facing the Shenandoah Valley to the west.

The dogwoods were blooming.

We drove along Skyline Drive, stopping at a few overlooks.

We hiked the Turk Mountain Trail after meeting some trail maintainers from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club who confirmed that the trailhead was across the road from the parking lot. (For those of you who don’t know, the Appalachian Trail is maintained primarily by volunteers.)

The trail leads to a rocky outcropping and overlook of the Shenandoah Valley.

Just north of the trailhead, there’s an overlook that provides a view of Turk Mountain.

Our next hike was Blackrock Summit, a short trail that leads to a boulder-field of exposed bedrock.

Our final–and most strenuous–hike of the day was Doyles River Falls. Like most waterfall hikes in Shenandoah, this one goes down and then up. And it’s quite an elevation change–almost 1,200 feet!

The main features of the trail are the upper falls…

…and the lower falls.

The hike up was a bit of the slog, but we did get to see this guy as we got close to the trailhead.

We spent the rest of the afternoon stopping along Skyline Drive and enjoying the lovely spring colors.

There was a small fire to the west. We weren’t sure if it was a controlled burn, given how dry it has been in the area.

Our final stop in the park was the same overlook where we’d started early in the morning.

It was a quiet day in the park, being a Thursday in April. We’ve heard it gets quite busy on weekends during the peak summer and fall tourist seasons. Some of the trails (those in the Old Rag Area) require a permit during most of the year due to their popularity. But there are plenty of trails with picturesque overlooks and waterfalls throughout the park, as we experienced on our trip.

Photos and text (c) 2026, J. Atwater. All rights reserved.