Park overview · SHEN

Shenandoah.

Shenandoah National Park: National Park in VA.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

Shenandoah National Park is a U.S. National Park Service unit in VA (NPS unit code SHEN), built around 105 miles of Skyline Drive running the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The park recorded 1,682,152 recreation visits in 2025 and runs a 5-year mean of 1,604,109 annual visits. The busiest month is October and the quietest is January. Uniquely, the peak is October fall foliage rather than summer, and October's mean runs roughly twice any single summer month. From December through March, Skyline Drive closes routinely for fog, ice, and snow per NPS, and the in-park Skyland and Big Meadows Lodge both close for winter. Old Rag's marquee day hike requires an advance day-use ticket. This page is the navigation anchor for Shenandoah coverage on this site: the best-time-to-visit pillar covers month-by-month crowd, weather, the staggered fall-foliage peak by elevation, and the Old Rag ticket window; the visitation page covers the long-run annual chart back to the 1993 historic peak.

Shenandoah on this site.

Shenandoah National Park is a U.S. National Park Service unit designated as a National Park, located in VA (NPS unit code SHEN). For when to go, what each month looks like, and the access calendar, follow the best-time-to-visit page. For the long-run visitation history and the disruption events that shaped recent years, follow the visitation page.

Park data card

FieldValue
DesignationNational Park
StateVA
NPS unit codeSHEN
Latest annual visits (2025)1,682,152
5-year mean annual visits1,604,109
Busiest month (5-yr mean)October
Quietest month (5-yr mean)January

On this site

Month by month

By state

Methodology

Identity, designation, and coordinates come from the official NPS unit page. Annual recreation visits, busiest month, and quietest month are computed from the NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025 on NPS IRMA Stats. This hub does not duplicate the per-month editorial that lives on the best-time page or the year-by-year chart that lives on the visitation page; follow those links for the deep view. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-05-28