Shenandoah National Park, Virginia (Day 2): Stony Man Mountain, Mary's Rock, & Lewis Falls
If you missed my first Shenandoah post, start here.
Stony Man Mountain (1.6 mile loop)
Ryan and I began our second day in the park with a hike up Stony Man. This is the second highest peak in the park, and the most northerly of the Blue Ridge Mountains, at 4,000 feet. This hike was marked by a ton of great vistas along the trail, culminating in a rocky lookout point from which you could get a stunning view of the mountains. The morning mist was clinging to the valleys, but it was clear enough to get a stunning view of the town as well.
This hike was super easy compared to Hawksbill, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Shenandoah. We got up and down the mountain with enough time to easily finish two more hikes, plus make a trip to the visitor’s center.
Mary’s Rock from Meadow Spring (2.9 miles)
Mary’s Rock was a solid hike uphill (a theme of our Shenandoah adventures). It started in lush green forest blanketed by tall ferns, passing by the remnants of an old cabin, and much of the hike is along the Appalachian Trail. Like Stony Man, this trail was punctuated by beautiful secluded vistas as you journeyed towards the summit, breaking up the climb.
Once we reached the summit, we ate lunch on the rocks, enjoyed the stunning views, and waited our turn to climb the pointed crest of the summit, so we could say we had really been to the very top. Oddly enough, though we didn’t have cell service in most of the park, we had full bars on the mountains!
After lunch, we hiked back down and drove up to the tunnel on Skyline Drive (not gonna lie, RRG’s Nada Tunnel is cooler), then stopped at the scenic overlooks we hadn’t yet been to along the drive. There were tons of wildflowers growing right beside the lookout points on these stops, which made for gorgeous photos and butterfly viewing.
Lewis Falls (2.5-ish miles, out and back)
In the visitor’s center, we picked up a booklet about waterfalls in Shenandoah, and Lewis Falls was on the list as nearby and relatively easy/short for the last hike of the day. We took a photo of the directions, which included a shortened version of the trail on the NPS website, and parked at the fire road lot by Big Meadow to begin.
The waterfall itself is 81 feet high, and you view it from an observation deck a ways away. It was a little tricky to find a good angle through the trees, but Lewis Falls was a stunner once we did!
If Ryan’s face is any indication, we were a little tired by the time we neared the end of our uphill trek back to the car. We had one last friend come say goodbye to us before we finished the hike.
Ironically, back when we were deciding on a honeymoon in pre-COVID times, Ryan specifically said that he didn’t want to hike the whole time (LOL). Despite everything, our “honeymoon” in Shenandoah turned out to be a wonderful time of summiting mountains and hunting waterfalls. And in this period of social distancing, I’m hoping we’ll be able to cross more national parks off our list, keeping safe even as we satisfy that endless wanderlust!