Overlooks on Skyline Drive look out on Blue Ridge haze, ridge behind ridge, and the road stays on the crest until it drops into Marys Rock Tunnel. On Old Rag you scramble boulders near the summit for a full-circle ridge view, and in the warm months that hike needs a day-use ticket. You sleep on the ridge, a campground pad after the light goes.
Mathews Arm is the closest campground when you enter from Front Royal, with Elkwallow Wayside nearby on the drive. Big Meadows is the central, reservation-only campground, and it is worth booking early. Pull-through and deep back-in sites fit most RVs and a tow vehicle, with potable water and a dump station.
Loft Mountain looks east and west from Big Flat Mountain, farther south on the drive, with waterfall and Big Run Wilderness trails nearby, and it mixes reservable sites with first-come pads the same way Mathews Arm does. Lewis Mountain is first-come only and self-register, the smallest of the four, and you dump at Big Meadows.
Big Meadows and Lewis Mountain open in late March, Mathews Arm and Loft Mountain in late April, and they run into late fall. Lock the pad before you lock the van, because the campground is the first reservation. None of the four have electric or water hookups. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, look at RV rentals in Virginia.
Shenandoah prohibits boondocking in an RV or any other vehicle, so overnight stays have to be in a campground. Marys Rock Tunnel's maximum clearance is 12 feet 8 inches.
Dark Hollow Falls and Whiteoak Canyon
Dark Hollow Falls follows a steep stream down from Skyline Drive, the popular waterfall walk from a night near Big Meadows. You drop with the water, then climb the same stream back to the ridge. Pets are not allowed on the trail.
Whiteoak Canyon and the Cedar Run circuit keep handing you cascades on the climb out from Hawksbill Gap. It is a longer, wetter day from the same kind of Skyline Drive night. The Appalachian Trail follows the same crest through the park, a thru-hiker path that crosses the drive at the trailheads.
Luray Caverns
Mirrored pools in Luray Caverns throw the formations back at you as you walk the chambers, a parked afternoon once you leave the ridge. The tour walks you through those rooms, and there is no camping on the property. Luray sits at Thornton Gap, Front Royal is the northern entrance to the drive, and Harrisonburg is the valley town on the west side of the ridge.
Skyline Drive can close at any time for snow or ice, and work crews can take several days to reopen it after a storm. The park stays open, and hiking from the entrance stations is still possible when the road is shut.
A Roanoke trip is the Blue Ridge Parkway, with a night at Peaks of Otter. From Alexandria the nights are the Northern Virginia parks, with a day in the District. Lake Anna is the overnight from Fredericksburg. Skyline Caverns, Grand Caverns, Grayson Highlands, and the Parkway south of Roanoke belong to the rest of Virginia.