Day twenty nIne, skyline drive, front royal to waynesboro, va

We were cringing a bit today at the thought of 180 kms on Skyline Drive At 35 mph speed limit, but the day dawned sunny and warm so we mounted up and hit Skyline Drive at Front Royal, through the entrance station for our second National Park. this time Shenandoah. At the Front Royal end it starts at about 2500 feet so it was promising to stay in the low 20’s for the day. Skyline drive has 70 looks, after. A few stops to take pics the stops at the overlooks became less and less as a couple of photos will suffice as to what they all look like, maybe a different shaped hill here and there.

At the northern end, the park is narrower in width so as you cruise along the ridge on the crest of the park, you are looking down onto rural Virginia on both the east and west side of the range.

The pics below are pretty typical of views from Skyline drive, some over farm land in the north, but the further south you ride, the wider the park gets, so you finish up looking at bush and National parks from both east and west overlooks.

Now to the credit of Park management, firstly I have to say that back in the day putting this road in was a marvel of civil engineering as it literally follows the crest of the park for over 100 miles, a superb piece of engineering.

Next marvel is the wee stone walls on both sides of the road, there are miles and miles of them, must have taken years.

Last but not least the road surface is in pristine condition and a pleasure to ride…. no trucks of course so nothing to wreck it like they do in NZ.

After numerous stops for water, rest our bums, snacks and pics, we arrived at the southern end after about 104 miles of Skyline drive and were at the Hotel in Waynesboro, VA before 2.00 pm.

Another must do ride if you own a motorcycle and live in the USA, Skyline drive and the Blue Fidge Parkway, which we will make a start on tommorrow.