Shenandoah National Park
— — the morning the ridge climbs out of the fog.
Not only on a wall.
“Two hundred thousand acres along the Blue Ridge, less than a two-hour drive west of Washington. Skyline Drive runs the spine of the park for 105 miles, north to south, with overlooks every few miles that face the Shenandoah Valley to the west and the Virginia Piedmont to the east. The fog comes off the valley most mornings in October and burns off by ten.
Shenandoah National Park, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Shenandoah National Park covers about 200,000 acres along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia, between Front Royal in the north and Rockfish Gap in the south. Congress authorised the park in 1926; it was formally established in 1935. Skyline Drive, the 105-mile scenic road that runs the length of the park, was built largely by Civilian Conservation Corps crews between 1931 and 1939. The highest point in the park is Hawksbill Mountain at 4,051 feet.
The Blue Ridge takes its name from the haze that hangs over the mountains on still summer days — a natural mist of isoprene released by the oak, hickory, and tulip-poplar forests that cover the slopes. The effect is strongest from late June through August. In autumn the air clears and the long views from overlooks like Stony Man and Mary's Rock can stretch sixty miles to the Allegheny Front. The park sits at the headwaters of both the Shenandoah and Rappahannock river systems.
Peak fall colour along Skyline Drive typically falls between October 10 and October 25, with the higher elevations turning first. The park records roughly 1.6 million visitors a year, with October as the busiest month — the entrance stations at Thornton Gap and Swift Run Gap routinely back up on autumn weekends. Spring brings the trillium and the migrating warblers; the Rapidan River and the Whiteoak Canyon waterfalls run hardest in April and early May, when snowmelt feeds the streams.