Shenandoah National Park in April

Thanks for the suggestions. We're staying at Luray KOA for a night, then on to Misty Mountain RV park before heading down to South Carolina for 2 days to visit Charleston and Congaree NP. We'll stop in West Virginia at the coal mine on the way home.
Thanks for all of the suggestions.

We use Shenandoah River State Park (Virginia) in early Spring or late fall. It is about 5 miles from the North entrance to the Skyline Drive.

It's a **** shoot, at best. Yes, SNP is lovely, and yes, I understand that you have hats and mittens. But you won't get electric hookups at any of the SNP campgrounds. And if you opt to stay at a campground outside the park, you'll be doing a lot of driving up and down the winding mountain pass roads every time you want to go up into the park.

If you look at the weather forecast 7 to 10 days ahead of your trip, and it looks like it will work for you, and if you can bring a generator or do without electric for the duration, then you'll probably have a great time. I like the Big Meadows campground for a lot of reasons. Lurray Caverns will be a great day trip for all of you.

But, I'd have a "Plan B" for poor weather. You could get a solid week of low 40's, upper 30's and rain, rain, rain. Who needs that?

-Speak

Great time of year to see bears and April is fine weather. Heck we had 77 degrees today. I used to live 6 miles drone the northern entrance. Now I live closer to the middle of the drive. It is a great to,e to go. I second KOA in Luray.

michigansandzilla……………

Visiting Shenandoah NP is GREAT and time of the year and in any weather. On clear sunny days the view is awesome. On cool foggy days its a treat watching the fog roll up the mountain.

Your can click here to view our journal. Hope the narrative and pictures help.

We are thinking about visiting Luray again this year in the Sept/Aug timeframe.

Enjoy your trip.

Highly recommend staying at the Luray KOA. Huge beautiful clean sites, great views, full hookup. Ten minute drive to the Thornton Gap.

We've stayed at Andy Guest campground at Shennandoah River State Park. They don't have full hook ups but it's a nice campground and fairly close to Luray and Skyline Drive.

michigansandzilla wrote:


We're currently looking for something low key, inexpensive, and 600 miles or less from home to keep to 1 day of driving. National Parks are a plus because I'm a National Park junkie.
Shenandoah fits the bill.

of course you know, your 10yo is in 4th grade, wink wink.

Take a look at Natural Tunnel SP in Virginia for a really low-key, off the beaten path area. There are lots of hiking trails, the "tunnel", caving trips, the "Devil's Bathtub" (google it for pics).

That's my territory and it is a great place.

Some of the campgrounds can accomodate your camper. Non of the campgrounds in the paek have hookups.We stayed at Big Meadows and they allowed generators. Loft Mountain is nice.If you don't have a generator,Sherando Lake is east of mile marker 18 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. They have electric.The problem with staying outside the park is it takes so long to get anywhere because the speed limit is 35mph.It takes 3 to 4 hours just to drive through the park.If you stay at Sherando,you could also see some of the Blue Ridge Parkway. There is a visitor center near the north entrance.