Shenandoah National Park,A short Day on the Skyline Drive

Before we left Winchester we wanted to explore a little bit of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park. The parkway road travels through much of Virginia and North Carolina along the  top of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is about 450 miles long. We hope to travel along it some future fall.
Friends had told us not to take our fifth wheel along the road but of course we wanted to see for ourselves if it would be possible to go this way,(We have traveled the Natchez Trace and strongly recommend it!).
It didn't look to good as we neared the parks North Entrance Station. A sign warned that the side of the arched overhang was only 12.2 feet but the arch looked higher and we are only 13 feet tall.  We showed our pass and started to climb, driving through a thick hardwood forest.

I had to pull off before we reached the first overlook as I had a line of cars behind me. I thought of the traffic jams in Yellowstone and why we avoid that place in mid summer. We reached the Shenoandoah Valley Overlook and saw Massanutten Mountain and Signal Knob in the distance. The South Fork of the Shenandoah River was far below and the sky was filled with a haze that prevented us from seeing  the sights clearly but it was still a beautiful panorama of hardwood forests.

We drove further and passed and stopped at other overlooks,  Marys Rock Tunnel approached and we drove through it and it looked like we would fit if there weren't any traffic going the other way....
Stopping we took some images of the tunnel from the Tunnel Overlook. A group of young men asked us to take their image and I had trouble with their camera but at last I got it.. They thanked us for rour kindness and I thought how nice young people can be.

Reaching the Pinnacles Overlook  we glassed Rag Top, a rocky peak far in the distance. I walked into the woods  and looked for morels but it was too early at this elevation and it was definitely to early for any berries. I didn't see any copperheads among the rocks, which would have been really cool as I have never seen one in the wild.

Returning we took Highway 211 and left the parkway passing under another low entrance station. Several cars were parked along the roadway as we headed down the mountain and I knew they were looking for mushrooms as the growth here looked further along.
It didn't take long for us to reach Winchester and our house, which is what we call our fifth wheel. We had checked some things off our list and had added to our knowledge of the east, it is time to head into Pennsylvania for a few days at Gettysburg and then to my nieces wedding in Connecticut. A long awaited family reunion. Clear skies