So lets start by saying there are a thousand different ways to enjoy the expansive beauty of Shenandoah National Park. One obvious starting point is to drive the beautiful Skyline Drive. It meanders across the tops of the ridges and crests providing an often panoramic view of both sides of the primary mountain range. You can get an easy overview of the area and narrow down the activities you’d like to enjoy.
I started out with a quick day hike to the beautiful and relatively easy access Dark Hollow Falls. The path is a well maintained trail that has a moderate altitude drop down to the the aptly-named waterfalls. Parking is located right off Skyline drive and the trail head is found close to the main road. The round-trip trail is a little over a mile and is all downhill to the falls and consequently all uphill returning. The terrain along the trail is heavily wooded and generally follows a creek.
Take a bottle of water and spend a little time enjoying the almost 80ft falls once you get to the bottom of the trail. For those looking for a bit more challenging hike, just keep going after you reach Dark Hollow Falls and the adventure can expand to around 6 miles and take in Rose River Falls via the Rose River Loop Trail. In fact, if you want to spend your entire time in the park hiking to various waterfalls, you certainly came to the right place. Shenandoah National Park has dozens of falls and hundreds of miles of hiking trails. It’s definitely a place to come back to and explore over and over again.
