Not heard of No-Regrets Road Trips?
Read all about it here.
We completed 7 years in a row in 2024.
Why Shenandoah National Park?
Shenandoah is an absolute feast for nature lovers & families – 100 miles of scenic Skyline Drive with a gazillion panoramic overlooks; Old Rag Trail – a 9-mile mega trail with a riveting rock scramble near the mountain top, Lurey Caverns – the underground natural cave formations; Zip Lines over the scenic Shenandoah valley; kayaking, canoeing, light rafting activities in the Shenandoah River and finally, many other natural waterfalls and trails.
How to Plan your visit?
• For accommodation, choose a vacation rental close to the park. We stayed here at a rustic lake-view lodge.
• Choose your activities and places to visit. We did the following in a 4-day trip: Skyline Drive, Dark Hollow WaterFall Trail, Stony Man Trail and the iconic Old Rag Mountain Trail.
• Other notable mentions: Hawksbill Overlook, Bear Mountain Zip-lines, Luray Caverns.
• As always, run through this indispensable emergency checklist and 7 tech essentials to turbo-charge your road trips.
Road Trip From Chicago
Chicago to Shenandoah National Park is about 700 miles and takes around 11-12 hours.
We pulled off an all-nighter, starting at 11 PM from Chicago.
The journey from Chicago to Shenandoah is a bit mundane until you hit Pennsylvania, and then the charming Alleghenies begin.
The route has multiple well-equipped service plazas on the way.
The Photolog
The Cottage
The cottage was well-equipped, nestled in a serene community with surrounding hills.
Here’s how the backyard looked in the evening..
Skyline Drive
The 100-mile Skyline Drive is governed by NPS and you have to pay a nominal entry fee to get a 7-day pass.
Skyline drive is renowned for its gazillion overlooks, we did a 40-mile stretch and stopped more than a dozen times.
Tip: No gas stations on the drive, so please load up before going in.
Old Rag Mountain Trail
Old Rag is a marquee Shenandoah activity. 9-mile hike, 2600 ft+ elevation gain, with arduous Rock Scramble stretch makes it a very challenging hike.
Tip: Please make sure you buy the ticket *before-hand* to hike on the Old Rag, it was sold out the day we hiked – thankfully we bought it before.
Old Rag is a bucket list type of trail for all nature enthusiasts.
Here goes the first of 9-miles..
After first few miles of ascend, you get to see some panoramic views.
You get hit by the rock scramble almost a mile away from the summit. It is do-able for kids or seniors but you need to be active (and may need friends to pull you through 🙂 ).
Almost there..
And there it is..
Time to let loose the shutterbugs ..
The descent was longer (about 5 miles) but way easier.
Just as the legs were feeling it.. a stream of water gives you encouragement to keep going!
After 7 hours and 7 minutes, we made it! Our AllTrails log as evidence 🙂
Stony Man Trail
Stony Man is an easy 1.5 mile trail which takes an hour to complete. Would be great to time it with sunset.
Tip: Don’t get confused with Little Stony Man, use this parking spot.
Very serene hike with all-round natural beauty.
Takes about 20 minutes to reach the overlook.
Dark Hollow Waterfall Trail
On a day which got affected by Hurricane Helene, it rained incessantly. But we still went for the Dark Hollow Trail to enjoy the waterfall, true to the spirit of No-Regrets trip!
Thanks to the rain and the mist, the trail looked magical.
Mini waterfalls on the way..
The main waterfall was gushing with water..
And roaring as well..
And just like that, our 2024 edition of the No-Regrets Road Trip rode into the sunset.
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