Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park have long been one of my favorite parts of Virginia, luckily not too far from where I grew up. My family has made periodic trips out there for a scenic drive and walk, but I hadn’t gone in a few years. I kept missing the fall colors by just a week or two when I happened to be home. This year, finding myself at home for much, much longer than a weekend here or there, we started getting out more, finding parks in northern Virginia that we hadn’t gone to before. We also took advantage of this time to go to Skyline Drive, not once but twice — first in late summer, and then again at the peak fall foliage time.
In the summer, the view really lives up to the name of the Blue Ridge Mountains. While I can glimpse the faint blue ridges from afar year-round while driving around my hometown, the mountains are seriously blue when you get there too. Then in the fall, glorious fall colors frame the drive, transform any hiking trail, and blanket the valley below. I took film photos of both visits, and when I got the film back a few weeks ago, I was excited to compare the two sets of results.
SUMMER
For my first trip of the year, back in early August, we started at the Front Royal entrance as we usually do and drove down to mile 20 or so. We mostly took in the drive and the views, stopping at overlooks and doing an easy walk down to Lands Run Falls. After heading back towards Front Royal, we were lucky to get a lovely, colorful Virginia summer sunset. Shot on Ultramax 400.
FALL
In mid-October, my mom and I drove back out to Shenandoah, this time going south to the Thornton Gap entrance. It was right around the peak time for beautiful fall foliage, so the park was unsurprisingly pretty packed. This is the natural downside to the park in autumn, but it’s still worth it (though if you can go on a weekday, do it). We kept our drive within mile 30 to Skyland, and hiked to Stony Man before catching another sunset at an overlook. The first third or so of these photos were shot on Fuji Pro 400H, and the rest on Kodak Portra 400.
