Big Meadows

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Participants in a field seminar at Big Meadows can look in the distance to see the Appalachian Mountain chain

View of Big Meadows in Summer

Big Meadows is located on the Skyline Drive at Milepost 51 in the Shenandoah National Park in Page County, Virginia, USA. The Park's Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center is located there, as is a lodge, camp store, and camping area.

Rapidan Camp, the restored historic (circa 1931) presidential fishing retreat of Herbert Hoover on the Rapidan River is nearby. It is accessed by a 4.1-mile round-trip hike on Mill Prong Trail, which begins on the Skyline Drive at Milam Gap (Mile 52.8). The National Park Service also offers guided van trips that leave from the Byrd Center at Big Meadows.

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the new park and the Skyline Drive at a ceremony at Big Meadows.

In 1962, during the Ash Wednesday Storm, Big Meadows recorded Virginia's greatest 24-hour snowfall with 33 inches and the storm snowfall was 42 inches.

In 1996, during the Blizzard of 1996, Big Meadows recorded Virginia's greatest storm snowfall accumulation at 47"

Archaeological work has uncovered evidence of prehistoric periods of human habitation as long ago as 2000 B.C. Big Meadows was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

[edit] Activities at Big Meadows

At Big Meadows, there is a dining hall, gift shop, horse trails, and a series of lodges for guests to stay in. Each room at the lodge has a stone fireplace, and you are provided with an allotment of wood for your stay. Strangely, however, the rooms are heated with natural gas; for the fireplaces are for decorative purposes only, nowadays.

At Big Meadows Wayside, there is a campground with roughly 200 lots. The facility at Wayside has a shower building, laundry accommodations, a packaged campfire wood storage building, and a small office at which ice, firewood, and basic supplies can be purchased.

There are several major hiking trails most often used by campers.

Lewis Spring Falls follows the Appalachian Trail for about 1.5 miles from the main campground to the falls overlook. It is an easy trail with standard hard-packed pebbles and dirt and has a few rock scrambles along the way.

Dark Hollow Falls begins at a parking lot close to the Byrd Center. From the parking lot, a .7 mile trail takes hikers to overlooks at the top and bottom of the falls. The train is easy, wide and wheelchair friendly, but somewhat steep on the return.

Black Rock Overlook is a scenic overlook .3 miles from the main campground and immediately adjacent to the Skyland lodge facility. It is the highest point at Big Meadows and provides a scenic view of the Shenandoah Valley.