If you've never been to Skyline Drive, I highly recommend taking
a motorcycle ride to Shenandoah
National Park and spending a day cruising through. Skyline
Drive is one hundred and five miles of beautiful, winding one-lane
road along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia,
and it's hard to beat on a beautiful day. I recommend visiting
during the week if possible, as traffic tends to be
significantly lighter than it is on the weekends. If you plan on visiting
during the summer, you should still pack your leathers, as the
temperature can be significantly lower in the mountains (usually
at least 10 degrees cooler than the valley below).
As
you can see from the map at the right (just click to enlarge),
there's plenty of camping along the way. Although the whole
park is beautiful, I prefer camping toward the southern end,
as there seems to be
significantly less traffic, and the campgrounds
are less crowded. I usually stay at Loft Mountain, which has
campsites that are a little more secluded, and some nice hiking
trails with views of the valleys on both sides of the ridge.
Skyline Drive also has plenty of scenic overlooks to pull off
the road, relax, and enjoy the view - 75 to be exact!
Shenandoah National
Park does charge $10 per motorcycle for a 1 to 7 day pass, which
seems a bit steep to me,
considering that's the same rate for
cars. I have found that if you enter the park late at night, the
ranger stations are not manned, so you can get in for free (not
that I'm recommending that).
If you continue on south and exit the park via Rockfish Gap, you'll
connect with the Blue
Ridge Parkway, which has even more twisties than Skyline Drive,
and even less traffic! The Blue Ridge Parkway also bans
commercial traffic, which is a huge plus for motorcyclists (no getting stuck
inhaling diesel fumes for miles on end). The speed limit varies,
but it is a bit slower than you'd expect, so try to resist the
temptation to open the throttle too wide. I have seen state troopers
just waiting for speeders, and in Virginia 20 mph over the limit
is "Reckless Endangerment" which comes with mandatory
jail time (not fun). My last ride through Virginia I was stopped
for going 16 mph hour over, and got a half hour lecture about
how lucky I was that I wasn't going 4 mph faster. Jeepers.
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