Guide to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive

View from Gooney Manor Overlook

MILE 6.8, GOONEY RUN OVERLOOK. Elevation 2,085 feet. There are views from the ends of the overlook. Looking to the right from the north end, you have a view across the valley, with several meanders of the Shenandoah River in sight. Signal Knob is at the far end of the Massanutten. Farther right, on the near side of the valley, is a part of Dickey Ridge. Gooney Run, which drains the Browntown Valley, passes about a mile straight out from the overlook, about 1,300 feet down.

Legend: Gooney Run was originally called Sugar Tree Creek. When Lord Fairfax went hunting there his favorite hound, Gooney, was accidentally drowned. His Lordship changed the name of the creek to Gooney's Run in honor of the dog.

Geology: The overlook rests on the contact between the Pedlar granodiorite below, and the Catoctin lava flows above. In the road cut are layers of basalt, separated by a layer of tuff (compressed volcanic ash). The layers are rather hard to make out because the rocks are weathered and crumbling. From the parking area look for a trail near the middle of the overlook. If the trail is not too badly overgrown, follow it for about 250 feet to a ledge of granodiorite, which looks like fine-grained granite.

A View From Gooney Manor Overlook Photo taken by Tom Lussier

To the left of Compton Mountain (at the left of the sketch) is Carson Mountain, from which the Blue Ridge descends, still farther left, toward Chester Gap. If you have binoculars, look at a point a little way down the left slope of Compton Peak. The rock ledge you see there has a good view in this direction. It's one of the objectives of the Compton Peak hike, Hike HN-9. As you can imagine, it's not a difficult climb.

History: As mentioned earlier, the Northern Neck became the property of Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax. Fairfax sold most of the land, but set aside several "manors" over which he kept seignorial rights. Two of these included tracts of land parts of which are now within the park - both in the North District. The Manor of Leeds was on the east side of the mountain, and will be mentioned later. Gooney Manor, consisting of about 13,000 acres, included a large part of the Browntown Valley below the overlook, as well as land farther north (toward Front Royal) on both sides of Dickey Ridge. Note that the term "manor" refers to the whole property - there was no mansion.

MILE 7.9, LOW GAP. Elevation 1,790 feet. Dickey Ridge Trail crossing. There is a pullout on the right beyond the concrete trail marker. On the east side it's 2.5 miles by trail to the Snead fire road, and 3.0 miles to the Fox Hollow Trail near the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center. On the west side it's 1.0 mile to Skyline Drive in Lands Run Gap at mile 9.2.

MILE 9.2, LANDS RUN GAP. Elevation 2,015 feet. Dickey Ridge Trail crossing; fire road; hikes. There is a parking space beside the fire road, on the west side.

There are two trails on the east side of the Drive, with the start of an old road trace between them. Farthest right is the Dickey Ridge trail (which is also a yellow-blazed horse trail here). It goes a mile and a quarter to the Appalachian Trail near the Drive, crossing in Compton Gap, mile 10.4. The other trail goes to Hickerson Hollow.  

Trivia: Harmony Hollow is drained by Happy Creek. Both names are more than 200 years old.

Lands Run Falls
Photo taken by Jeff Logesky

On the west side of the Drive, follow the fire road downhill for about 0.6 mile. (The road was newly regraded when hiked in 2005, but it is fairly steep.) Look for a low point where a small stream flows under the road. Follow the stream about 25 feet to the right to the top of the falls.

MILE 9.5, PARKING PULLOUT, west side. Rock lovers only: park here and walk south (uphill) a little more than a hundred yards to the rocks exposed on the east side of the Drive. These are "migmatitic, granitic gneiss" of the Pedlar formation. The bands of lighter-colored rock "define plunging folds." The nearly vertical bands are thickest, and easiest to see, near the downhill end of the exposure.

MILE 10.4, COMPTON GAP. Elevation 2,415 feet. Paved parking lot for several cars on the east side of the Drive. AT crossing; Dickey Ridge Trail access; hikes. See map below.

Dickey Ridge, on which the Drive has ascended to this point, joins the Blue Ridge here. The rest of the Drive follows the Blue Ridge near its crest. The Dickey Ridge Trail ends where it meets the Appalachian Trail, about a quarter of a mile to the north. The Compton family, for whom the gap and Compton Peak were named, had its home near the present site of Indian Run Spring.

Map MN-3 - Lands Run - Compton Gap Area

Click here for a printable map

An old road crossed the mountain here. On the east side of the Drive it goes 2.2 miles north to the park boundary. It serves as both fire road and, for most of this distance, as the AT. On the other side of the Drive the old road turned right and descended into Lands Run; it has been abandoned for many years, and has nearly disappeared. The AT goes 2.0 miles south to Jenkins Gap, where a short side trail leads to Skyline Drive at mile 12.35.

HIKE HN-6: Compton Gap to Fort Windham Rocks. Round trip 0.8 mile; total climb about 130 feet; time required 0:55. An easy hike to an interesting rock formation. See Map MN-3. Follow the white-blazed AT (fire road) north for about a quarter of a mile to its junction with the Dickey Ridge Trail, on the left, and a service road, on the right. Turn left on the Dickey Ridge Trail and walk 300 yards to Fort Windham Rocks. At the left edge of the trail is a large boulder with a vertical split through the middle. Most of the rocks are on the right, but about a hundred feet from the trail rising 45 to 50 feet above it. They are deeply split, and weathering rapidly. These rocks are all that remains of the Catoctin lavas here on the summit of Carson Mountain. A short distance from here, in any direction, the Pedlar granodiorite is exposed. Lichen Photo taken by Henry Heatwole Be advised that the vegetation at the rock site is very dense in summer and thus the outcrop area is difficult to access and view. If you'd like a closer look at the rock particularly when seasonal vegetation has died back, continue past the rocks on the trail, then go around behind them on the far side. Around back, where the rocks are crumbling, you'll see a fine display of the subtle colors that result from weathering and lichen growth: shades of pink, brown, white, gray-green, and reddish.

HIKE HN-9: Compton Gap to Compton Peak. Round trip 2.4 miles; total climb about 835 feet; time required 2:45. Views and an outstanding example of columnar jointing. Most of the trail is fairly easy; but part of it is rather rough and rocky, and in one place it's quite steep. See Map MN-3. Take the white-blazed AT on the west side of the Drive (the side opposite the parking area). At the beginning, the exposed rocks are granodiorite. But 0.2 miles from the Drive you'll pass a large basalt boulder at the left of the trail - the first conspicuous evidence of the Catoctin lava that forms the crest of Compton Peak. In the next tenth of a mile you'll pass more boulders, in successively more advanced stages of disintegration, until you reach a point where the whole area, including the trail, is strewn with broken rock. This is the roughest part of the hike, but it's only about a hundred yards long. The high point of the AT on Compton Mountain is 0.8 mile from the Drive. You'll see a concrete trail marker post there, and a side trail to right and left. Each goes about 0.2 mile to a viewpoint. Take the trail on the right first. After crossing the crest of Compton Peak, the trail goes a short distance down the northwest slope. The trail is rough and rocky here. Toward the end it's a little hard to follow, so watch the blue blazes. The viewpoint ledge is marked with a blue cross, meaning "this is it". To the right of your view, the sharp crest in the distance is on the Blue Ridge outside the park. To the left of it, and much closer, you can see Skyline Drive on the near side of Dickey Ridge, which takes a sharp turn to the right at Gooney Manor Overlook, near the left end of your view. On the highest part of Dickey Ridge is the tower of the FAA radio beacon. From there the ridge descends to the right, toward the town of Front Royal. From a second, lower ledge, you can see farther to the right - including a part of the Piedmont. Columnar Jointing Photo taken by Linda Lavender Now return to the marker post, where the other side trail is directly across the AT. It leads to a somewhat limited viewpoint that is rather rough and rocky, and the last part of it is quite steep. If you skip it you can shorten the hike by 0.4 mile, and reduce the total climb by 230 feet. But it is recommended that you go anyway to see a fine example of columnar jointing. This particular rock formation raised Henry Heatwole's interest in geology, as he characterized it, "from near zero to the threshold of enthusiasm". Maybe it will do the same for you. Follow the blue blazes downhill to a boulder that rises ten or fifteen feet directly in front of you. Climb to the top. There's a view directly ahead out into the Piedmont. The Blue Ridge goes to the right, with a good stretch of Skyline Drive, including Jenkins Gap Overlook, in view. Straight out from this rock, The Peak rises beyond the near ridge. At the right of your view are the two summits of Mt. Marshall. After enjoying the view at Compton Peak, climb back down the boulder and continue to follow the blue blazes to the base of the cliff and then look up. The lava cracked into these prismatic columns when it cooled some 800 million years ago. The thrusting force that formed these mountains tilted the columns to their present angle. During subsequent erosion, the downhill side of the cliff crumbled away, so that you now look up at the lower ends of the giant prisms.

MILE 10.8, INDIAN RUN OVERLOOK. Elevation 2,400 feet. You're looking across the hollow formed by Indian Run and to the right, out into the Piedmont. (To your right, down the hollow, the park boundary is less than a quarter of a mile away.)

In winter, after a long cold spell, the rocks in the road cut across the Drive build up impressive displays of icicles and cascades of ice.

Geology: The rocks across the Drive from the overlook are a part of the first (oldest) lava flow of the Catoctin formation. They're worth a closer look. Enjoy the subtle colors of the rocks, which vary from medium gray, tan, and rusty rose, to various shades of gray-green.

Near the north end of the rock cut, about 50 yards beyond the north end of the overlook, is a good display of columnar jointing that extends for about 50 feet along the Drive. The lava, when it cooled, cracked into 4-, 5-, or 6-sided prisms from four to ten inches across - some nearly vertical, some fanning outward. Near the south end of this display (nearest the overlook), stop and look up. Fifteen or twenty feet overhead are inclined columns that have broken off, so that you view them endways. This is the same effect that you see on a much larger scale under the ledge on Compton Mountain. (See Compton Peak Hike HN-9, above.)