This is a roughly 12-mile round-trip hike, with about 1500 feet of gain in elevation.
You start from the Jordan River Trail Head, about 60 miles west of Vienna, VA, just outside the Shenandoah National Park boundary. I will call out Crest Hill Road — that takes you from I-66 to US 522 — as a particularly nice part of the drive, and an official Scenic Byway in Virginia.
You walk uphill on a series of trails, for somewhere around 3 hours, to Gravel Springs Gap on the Skyline Drive.
Then you walk back down again.
The slope of the trail is mild throughout.
That said, 12 miles is still a long way. This took me just over 7 hours car-door-to-car-door, of which about 6 hours was walking.
Continue reading Post #2150: Jordan River to Skyline Drive hike.