Looking up the hill from my campsite in Shenandoah National Park’s Mathews Arm Campground, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

Secret Vistas –
By Glynn Wilson –

SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — Well, truth be told, it’s not exactly a secret.

This is one of the well known national parks, one of two Crown Jewels of the East along with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Yet it always feels like an amazing secret every time you pull in here from points north, west or south, especially on a Monday when it’s drizzling rain, foggy and you feel like you’re in the clouds, and not many folks are hanging around.

The rangers say it’s been a very busy year along Skyline Drive, one of the great American drives created by the National Park Service back in the day. The drive is one thing people feel safe enough to leave the house for in this scary time with the coronavirus gripping the world in a global pandemic.

Quite a few people feel safe enough to venture into the campgrounds here too, they say, and stay for the night, especially on the weekends when it’s so busy in the autumn color leaf season that you can’t reserve a site in a campground. You have to take your chances with the first-come, first-serve sites held back by the smart and generous Ranger Division of the Park Service. It gives adventurous travelers a chance.

That’s why the secret is to pull in on a weekday, when you can take your pick of the best sites that are at least close to level and just happen to set up right for your vehicle. Then there are the views to consider too, and just maybe you are chasing an elusive signal on your cell phone in these protected mountains to send messages back home to let your people know you’re safe.

A cabin surrounded by peak fall color in Shenandoah National Park in the group area of Mathews Arm Campground, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

I managed to catch it just right on Monday, October 12, and met some friends on Wednesday who wanted to ride 25 miles along Skyline Drive on bikes. It was a fun escape and sort of mental health day for them, and I enjoyed the task and the company. It allowed me to catch a shower in the renovated showers at Big Meadows Campground, where I worked as a volunteer campground host in 2015.

Looking around the G-loop along the Appalachian Trail, and the picnic area, brought back good memories, good times.

Back on the drive I passed my friends and waived, then stopped for ice at the Elkwallow Wayside store and then waited with a cold one back at the campsite.

The plan is to pass through the park one more time on the way back to North Carolina in November. The exact date for travel is uncertain, and depends on the election and the weather. I really would like to spend the last four days of October in Loft Mountain Campground at the south end of the park. But it closes the final day in October, Saturday the 31st. Big Meadows is open until November 11, so I could stay there on the way back instead. We will just have to wait and see how it goes.

Meanwhile enjoy these photos. I hope to get some wildlife in a few shots on the way back, time permitting. I didn’t see many deer and no bears here yet this year. I tried to photograph a few woodpeckers, but as usual, they are shy and persnickety I guess about who they let take their picture.

Loft Mountain has the cottontail rabbits, so I hope to catch a glimpse of them on the way back with fall color in the background. Anyway, catch you next time online or on the trail. Whatever you do, try to find some time to get outside and enjoy nature, at least what’s left of it. If politicians and business men like Donald Trump had their way, it would all be paved over for a parking lot by now.

Yeah, California just needs to rake its leaves out there in the national forests and parks so there would not be wildfires everywhere. Right. Trump and his ilk just need to step aside and let the professionals start dealing with climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels.

You can’t fake tweet your way out of this one.

More Photos

Peak fall color in Shenandoah National Park’s Big Meadows Campground, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

A campsite in Shenandoah National Park’s Mathews Arm Campground, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

Looking up the hill at the entrance to Mathews Arm Campground in Shenandoah National Park, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

Peak fall color in the woods of Shenandoah National Park along a trail, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

Peaking fall color in the Mathews Arm Campground at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia: Glynn Wilson

Fall color in the woods of Shenandoah National Park, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

Fall color in the Mathews Arm Campground at Shenandoah National Park, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson

Up the hill in Mathews Arm Campground, Shenandoah National Park, Autumn 2020: Glynn Wilson