landscape photography

Shenandoah National Park Trip

Last weekend my husband and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary in Shenandoah! It was a wonderful trip away with amazing mountain views. We started our adventure at Shenandoah National Park, taking the day to drive along the famous Skyline Drive. This drive definitely needs 3+ hours to enjoy the breath taking views and overlooks (there are 75 in the park!). We drove until Loft Mountain overlook - by then we had seen a lot of the park. Really loved this drive, just note the speed limit in park is 35mph!

Overlook along Skyline Drive - Shenandoah National Park

If you are looking for an awesome Airbnb - highly recommend White Lotus Eco Spa Resort. The property is located about 20-25 minutes outside the park in the town of Stanardsville, VA. Very secluded and in the woods, the buildings and rooms are well kept and cozy! They have an excellent fully equipped kitchen, an eco spa, dipping pool, movie theater room, massage room and much more. Staff is super friendly and checking in and out was so simple.

Along with the Skyline drive, we hiked the White Oak Canyon trail from the lower falls to upper falls. Let's just say these hikes will keep your heart rate up! Since the park is situated on the Blue ridge mountains, most of the hikes require you to hike uphill with steep descends. Our hike led us to some of the parks best waterfalls with a mountain view at the top. Highly recommend giving yourself a few hours to explore the trails the park has to offer!

Waterfall along White Oak Canyon hike.

If you love wine, you've come to right place. The Monticello wine trail has 30 wineries to choose from. The Glass House Winery has a great tasting selection along with yummy homemade chocolates! You can also sip a glass of wine in their green house. Stone Mountain Vineyards is a bit of a hike up the mountain, but is worth the scary drive! Once there, the views are absolutely stunning. I did not want to leave that view!

Wine, cheese and crackers on the patio at Stone Mountain Vineyards.

From our Airbnb, the town of Charlottesville was about 40 minutes. Really neat city with tons of restaurants, bars, shops and great atmosphere. We ate at Citizen's Burger where you can customize your own burger - so delicious!

Our last stop on the trip was to Skyline Caverns. We unfortunately couldn't wait the line out for Luray Caverns which is the most popular cavern in this area. Skyline Cavern has very rare Anthodites on display. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable and was neat to explore the cavern.

Skyline Cavern formations.

Here are some of my favorite photos I took from our trip, can't wait to go back!