This is an easy hike in the northern section of Shenandoah National Park.
It starts from the Compton Gap parking lot, about 13 miles south of the Front Royal entrance to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park.
Getting there is its own entertainment.
Above: Massanutten Mountain, from Skyline Drive.
Having lived here most of my life, I tend to forget how lovely the northern portion of Skyline Drive can be. It’s not that any one overlook is magnificent. It’s that, on a clear day, you get views of the Shenadoah Valley and the Virginia Piedmont for mile after mile of driving.
Oddly enough, as I was at this overlook around 7 AM, a string of sports cars passed by. So, apparently, somebody in the area organizes Saturday-morning road rallies on Skyline Drive.
As an EV driver, I think cars that make vroom-vroom noises on purpose are kind of silly. They are toys. Very loud toys.
I definitely heard them coming back, as I was hiking. Probably the biggest downside of this hike is that the Appalachian Trail stays in fairly close proximity to Skyline Drive for the whole hike. You’re never really out of earshot of traffic noise, particularly if it’s the intentionally-noisy exhausts of sports car enthusiasts.
I had roughly the same feelings about this as I have about people who take ATVs into wilderness areas. But here, at least, they can only race along Skyline Drive when the road is empty, so I only witnessed their road rally because I was up at the crack of dawn.
Shenandoah National Park gets about 1.7 million visitors a year (reference), so you can hardly expect solitude on a hike like this. That said, a string of cheap little sports cars (think, Honda) with loud engine exhaust is not really what this park is all about IMHO.
By contrast, route 55 east of Front Royal — part of my drive home — was far more challenging than Skyline Drive. There, you’re going 55 MPH on a hilly, curvy country road, against a steady stream of traffic. By contrast, the limited-access 35 MPH Skyline Drive is a piece of cake.
Park at Compton Gap on Skyline Drive.
Park. Cross the road. Walk south on the Appalachian Trail until you feel tired. Return.
I had originally intended to go only as far as the next AT-Skyline Drive crossing. But that was far too easy a hike. I continued on to the peak of Mount Marshall. Google (above) says the round-trip was just over 10 miles. It took me just about six hours of walking to complete it.
That’s the hike. It starts with a gentle-but-lengthy ascent. Most of the rest of the walk is along the ridge, on level trails.
The trail here is maintained by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, and the work shows. It’s hard to keep a heavily-used trail from turning into a muddy rut. But they’ve managed to do it.
Fern valley.
The section above looks nice until you realize you’re looking at stinging nettles as far as you can see to either side of the trail.
Conclusion
What I learned on this hike is that, for me, masochism is an explicit part of this whole mountain-day-hike thing.
I didn’t feel quite beaten-up enough at my planned turnaround point. So I kept walking until I did.
And then walked back.
It was a satisfying hike.
