While I absolutely love how Skyline Drive has all of its lookouts prominently labeled along the road as you approach them, I did not think the same for its hiking trails. Naturally, you'll also do well to fill up your gas tank completely before entering the park as you'll go through it quickly when exploring here.

So without doing much else but quick photo breaks at lookouts, the first exit may take two hours to reach, the second exit three to four hours, and the entire distance five hours or more- and that is just one way! Those exploring longer stretches of the park may have a 140-mile or 200+ mile drive on their hands in a single day if returning back to where you started.Ĭonsidering the park's speed limit is 35 mph and there are lookouts about every half-mile, it is best to plan for an average speed of about 20 mph when accounting for brief stops at the lookouts at a starting point. As such, visitors to this park need to prepare themselves for a solid drive as the shortest round-trip journey is 70 miles. There are only four entry/exit points to the park and they are spaced out in roughly 35-mile intervals.

It begins in Front Royal to the north and ends at Waynesboro to the south (just west of Charlottesville) where it links up with the Blue Ridge Parkway. A Long Drive on Skyline Drive with Many LookoutsĪt its core, Skyline Drive at Shenandoah National Park is a 105-mile road that winds its way through the mountains of Virginia.

Shenandoah skyline drive map