July 25 - Spectacular Vistas of Blue on Skyline

Blue, blue, and more blue! Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia was amazing! Teal blue, dark blue, light blue – the numerous overlooks on both sides of the road provided one example after another of the ridges, hills, and mountains in the Shenandoah Valley to the west and the Piedmont to the East.

Leaving Fort Meade this morning I headed south to Front Royal, the starting point for Skyline Drive when coming in from the north and also home to one of my favorite hamburger joints – Spelunkers Frozen Custard and Cavern Burgers. I typically eat at Spelunkers on my way to either Skyline Drive or the Blue Ridge Parkway as the eatery is just a few blocks from the key access point and the burgers are some of the best ones I’ve ever had.

The meal was off the charts delicious! The burger, created in-house with ground chuck and brisket, was moist, flavorful, and literally dripping with juicy goodness. The hand cut fries were perfectly cooked and seasoned. I also splurged on a vanilla custard malt for dessert as Spelunkers makes those from scratch as well. The food was simply too good to resist, and I ate enough for both lunch and dinner.

Properly fortified for the hundreds of miles of driving ahead of me, I turned south on Skyline Drive to enjoy all that the Blue Ridge Mountains had to offer. The roads were in excellent condition this year and traffic was relatively light. There was a slight haze in the air that did mute the colors somewhat, but thankfully all of the beautiful shades of blue still shone through. The views on both sides of the road were spectacular. The hills and mountains are so numerous that they seem to appear in waves – ridge after ridge with one stacked after another.

I did stop to get several pictures and just savored the beauty around me. Butterflies danced, wildflowers swayed in the wind, and the temperature was relatively mild. I met a fellow solo traveler, a young man named Denis, who was driving his bike from Maine to California. Because the speed limit is only 35 miles per hour, it does take about four hours (including stops) to complete the 105 mile stretch to Waynesboro. From Waynesboro I took interstates to Norfolk, Virginia, my launching off place for tomorrow.