We weren’t able to go up to New England this year for vacation, so we met my parents in the middle at the Shenandoah National Park and it did not disappoint. Just a seven hour drive from Chattanooga, the Shenandoah National Park is a great location for the nature enthusiast, thrill seeker, and history buff.
When looking for a place to stay, I searched for places situated close to one of the four entrances: Front Royal, Thornton Gap, Swift Run Gap, and Rockfish Gap. We landed in a cabin located at Massanutten Resort and it was the perfect spot. It was a cabin in the woods, but it was not too far from amenities. We were 20 minutes from Harrisonburg and 20 minutes from the Swift Run Gap entrance. The resort also had plenty to do if we didn’t want to travel far, but still wanted to do something. They had a waterpark, bumper cars, mini golf, go karts, spa, mountain biking, farmers’ market, and all sorts of other activities.
We wanted to do at least one, if not two, hikes with the kids in the park and since it would be their first time on hiking trails, I looked for the ones labeled easy and which were two miles or less round trip. I also knew that whatever we did would take twice as long because of the kids’ walking pace.
We started with Dark Hollow Falls at Big Meadows.
This trail took us down to a chilling waterfall where we played and ate our lunch. The hike back up was more tiring because it was all uphill, but the kids did great! We didn’t have to use our kids’ carrier until we were 2/3 of the way through.
The second hike we did was Bearfence Trail, which boasts a 180 degree view, but it wasn’t what we thought and was a little disappointing.
However, part of the trail was on the Appalachian trail, so we can now say that we have walked some of the Appalachian trail. One of the days my husband took off on his own and hiked Old Rag which people say is a must if you go to Shenandoah National Park. 10 miles round trip, this hike is not one to do on a rainy day because of the multiple rock scrambles.
One of the days we decided to take it easy and visited the Harrisonburg Children’s Museum.
Only $9 a person, the museum is in a two-story building and seemed to have perfect exhibits that did not feel too overwhelming. They had an airplane with a communication tower, a lemonade stand to learn about running a business and profits, a vet station, a theater stage, news station, and a fun way to learn about investing, spending, and saving money. I was very impressed and wished we had some of the exhibits here. In the same area as the museum, were several restaurants and bakeries. If you need to run off some energy, there’s A Dream Come True playground or the Edith J Arboretum at James Madison University.
A 35-minute drive from Massanutten, is Luray Caverns, the largest cavern in the eastern United States. A living cave, it takes about an hour to walk through and in one of the rooms along the path, they have an organ hooked up to the stalactites; it was pretty neat to visit. It is expensive, but the cost also covers entrance into the toy museum, car museum, and Shenandoah Heritage Museum. There are a few other activities here, but they are extra. We didn’t get to venture into the town of Luray because of nap times, but it looked like a quaint little town to spend the afternoon in. If you plan on staying a few more days, there are a couple vineyards in the area, a lavender farm, a quilt museum, the New Market Battlefield, the Natural Bridge State Park, Frontier Culture Museum, a safari park, Dinosaur Land and so much more.
We didn’t explore much of the food scene because it was easier to eat at the Airbnb with the kids, but we grabbed some bagels from Mr. J’s Bagels and Deli in Elkton. When looking for pizza one night, I discovered Wood Fired Co which looks out of this world delicious, but they didn’t have a pop-up that evening. They set up at Elkton Brewing Co on certain nights of the week. Food options is probably the only thing that I would say wasn’t fantastic, but again, we were only 20 minutes from Harrisonburg.
