Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
11.
Big Meadows
Wide-open spaces are rare in this densely forested region, so this 150-acre clearing—a
grassytablelandofmeadows,pastures,andgardens—offersasurprisingchangeofscenery.
Situated high on the ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Big Meadows has been level for
several centuries. Indians and, later, settlers are believed to have burned the area regularly
(perhaps after it was already cleared by a lightning-ignited fire) to make it a better hunt-
ing ground and pastureland. The National Park Service has adopted a similar strategy—a
combination of mowing and controlled burning—to preserve the historic site and provide
wildlife habitat.
While tall trees are conspicuously absent from the landscape, several hundred types
of wildflowers thrive in the area's swampy wetlands and surrounding fields—in fact, Big
Meadows has the greatest concentration of wildflowers in Shenandoah National Park.
Guided tours of this botanical bounty are usually offered on the second weekend in May,
when the park hosts its annual Wildflower Weekend. Violets, trilliums, geraniums, azaleas,
pink-and-yellow lady's slippers, and jack-in-the-pulpits are just of few of the springtime
blooms to be savored.
Although the big meadow has no designated trails, visitors are free to explore. As you
wanderabout,youmayspotwhite-taileddeer,groundhogs,grayfoxes,andnumerousother
critters. On spring evenings male woodcocks perform flamboyant feats of aerobatics dur-
ing their courtship flights.
12.
South River Overlook
On the way to South River Falls, the big blue sky suddenly seems much smaller as it plays
hide-and-seek through a canopy of oaks and hickories. Each season, this area—like the
rest of the park—stages a brand-new extravaganza. In springtime the air is sweetened by
the scent of azaleas and other flowers and by the melodies of woodland birds, including
warblers, wrens, thrushes, and five kinds of woodpeckers. By summer, nature's canvas is
no longer speckled with soft pastels but covered by a great green blanket. Come autumn,
the canvas is ablaze with dazzling hues of orange, yellow, and red. When winter finally ar-
rives, Shenandoah becomes a virtual still life, its rhythms as slow as the icy waterfalls that
whisper from afar.
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