Shenandoah National Park
We explored Shenandoah National Park multiple days during our two weeks in the area on a vork (vacation and work) trip. We stayed in the park one night at Skyland which we would recommend. We split the rest of our time between Harrisonburg, Virginia and Waynesboro, Virginia.
In the park, there are many overlooks and trails with beautiful mountain views. The main park road, Skyline Drive is long so we did sections of it each day we visited. If you do not want to or cannot hike long distances, you can still see a lot of beautiful views from the overlooks. However, if you do want to hike, there are tons of trails in this park to really get into nature. The park was not busy, or at least it did not seem very busy when we went in late September during the week after work or on the weekends.
After leaving Shenandoah, we headed to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, but we only had time to drive a portion of this route between the two parks. We wish we had devoted more time to this drive, because it was amazing! There are overlooks where you can stop to take in the beauty. We saw a lot of deer and turkeys so look out for wildlife on the drive.
