Spacious Skies: Celebrating 4th of July at an Aptly-Named Campground
Driving up I-81 through the Shenandoah Appalachians, we couldn't believe that just 9 months before, we were towing for the very first time along this same road. Thankful that those awkward days were behind us, and equally thankful that the weather was less gloomy than in October, we were ready to stop in Shenandoah and make the most of our July 4th weekend. We still had a Bostonian mindset and were nervous about traveling the Friday before a major holiday, but we zipped straight on up to Virginia, hit no traffic, and settled ourselves into our new home for the next several days: Spacious Skies Shenandoah Valley.
This campground was our most expensive nightly rate since we launched, not surprising since they upped their rates for the holiday. Given the price of our stay, our arrival left a little to be desired. The roads to get to the campground were questionable. No one likes towing a road that supposedly has a length restriction and also has a single-lane bridge, and is so narrow that all cars need to pull over to let the RVs go by. The campground itself continued the wonkiness. While the grounds were lovely, the sites were flat-out strange. They were long enough, but terribly narrow. The parking area of each site was bordered by wood timbers, so we had to be extra precise backing in. That was no easy feat because the campground roads were narrow, and there were grassy areas that were blocking easy access to a lot of the sites, including ours. According to old map pins, this campground was a KOA before it was bought by Spacious Skies. We didn't really see a lot of KOA essence there, minus a giant inflatable jumping pillow that seems to grace a lot of the playgrounds at KOAs. The other major downside that we discovered right away was that there were flies everywhere! We couldn't even open our door without a dozen flies getting into our trailer. We were zapping them with our swatter constantly.
We were so looking forward to lowering our patio because the view out the back of our site was fantastic, but between the flies and the humidity, we never had a chance. We also never used our firepit, which was a bummer because the campground had beautiful stone firepits surrounded by Adirondack chairs.
We can't deny the beauty of this campground, especially at dusk as the sun set over the farm fields and distant mountains, and our friends the fireflies came out of hiding. This campground's firefly display beat that of our Smokies campground, which we didn't think was possible. I finally captured enough footage to put their display to music.
We tried to embrace the good that this campground offered, but at over over $100/night, it was a tough pill to swallow. One thing we did find humorous, though, was that with the price point seemed to come the really nice rigs. Walking the campground felt like shopping at a Grand Design dealer, with beautiful giant Momentums and Solitudes everywhere. One RV even had its own separate trailer to house their generator!
At the end of the day, we chose the campground so that we could be near downtown Luray and Shenandoah, but also not be in a place that was totally crazy for the 4th. We've heard horror stories of endless parties, scared pets, and fireworks setting nearby buildings on fire, and we wanted none of that. For our first 4th on the road, we made sure to have the perfect balance of celebrations and peace.
Our streak of hitting National Parks at not-crowded times continued. We had some beautiful hikes along the Appalachian Trail, where thankfully, there were less flies than at our campground. We also took Tanner along Skyline Drive, where he got his picture taken at the Tanners Ridge Overlook.
We think this video captures the beauty and peace of the hikes:
We were a little spoiled after our trips to the Smokies and New River Gorge, so it took us a second to warm up to the Shenandoah scenery, but once we got on the trails we had a great time. It's hard to believe we hadn't ever been to Shenandoah National Park, being that it's one of the closer parks to Massachusetts and we take regular trips to DC. Now we have our next National Park pin and lots of fun memories.
One must-do that we were looking forward to was the Luray Caverns. Again, we questioned if we were too spoiled to appreciate it, being that we had just seen Mammoth Cave, but we had heard good things and were 7 minutes up the street. What could go wrong?! We took a risk going on 4th of July weekend, but the Caverns boasts that it never sells out, and when we first arrived, there weren't any crowds in the parking lot or the ticket line. We got our tickets right away and headed through the gift shop (which was a gemstone-lovers paradise) and to the Cavern entrance.
That's when we realized that we're not just spoiled by Mammoth Cave. Luray Caverns is a total tourist trap. They took a marvelous piece of nature and turned it into a capitalist nightmare. It was clear that they boast "never selling out" because they want to make a pretty penny. They purposely make the ticket line look small, but when you get down into the cave, there is no organization, so everyone ends up packing into the cavern rooms with no one ushering them to keep moving. We barely got through the first room before getting stuck for 30 minutes in a crowd that wouldn't budge. That's what happens when hundreds of people are going from a large room to a small cave passageway - then add in the constant stopping of people taking selfies.
My agoraphobia started to kick in when I realized that, if we kept going, there would be no way out, and we'd be stuck underground going nowhere for at least 3 hours. We turned around and left while the entrance was still in sight. Once back on ground level, we complained to the workers who offered us a refund without nearly as much push-back as we anticipated. They blamed the busy holiday weekend, but if they can't handle crowds that big, then maybe they should sell out. All they needed were a few workers downstairs telling people to keep moving, or better yet, take a page from the Mammoth Cave book, and have people go down in groups.
If it's any consolation, what we saw of the caves was beautiful, so if you're in the area and want to go, just go at an off-time, and maybe it'll be nice. Or just go to the gift shop. I could have spent all day in there. I imagine as Anthony and I continue traveling more, our standards will keep shifting on what we think is worth our time and money. There's something about natural wonders being flooded with people that irks me, and I do understand the irony of that because I too am one of the people contributing to those very crowds when I visit these places. But all I ask is for systems to be implemented to lessen the havoc that's placed on natural attractions. There are right and wrong ways to turn nature into profit.
Since the caverns were a bust, we decided that our best bet was to experience Luray not as the tourists do, but as the locals do. On 4th of July, we headed into town for the Downtown Get Down: food trucks, duck races, live performances, cornhole tournaments, and bouncy houses. Luray has a walkable downtown, which includes a river walk and a greenway. Most of the 4th festivities were taking place along Main Street, so we parked nearby, grabbed a food truck dinner, and walked along the river to one of the outdoor concerts. The band was Virginia-based country band The Low Low Chariot, and they were fantastic. As a musician it's not lost on me how difficult it is to play in near-100-degree heat, and these dudes nailed it, particularly the lead singer and the guitarist. My harping becomes rather abysmal in heat, thanks to relentless edema in my fingers, so hearing that guitar man riffing with Hendrix-level fingering, I was impressed. Check out the video below, where you can also see the equally-impressive stilts performer.
As the Luray locals made their way to the fairgrounds for fireworks, we headed home to be with the animals when the booms started. To our pleasant surprise, we were able to catch a peek at the fireworks from the top of the hill in the campground, right in front of our site. And just like that, our first 4th of July on the road came to a close. It was a weekend of ups and downs, but we will never forget visiting our 9th National Park, pretending to be local in Luray, and seeing the fireflies light up the mountainsides.
Campground:
Spacious Skies Shenandoah Valley
Site 33, standard back-in, FHU, firepit and picnic table
Field and mountain views behind the site