Beth and I were visiting her folks for this Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, and today was to be our big day of driving and hiking, with three small peaks in the Shenandoah National Park as our goals. We started the day by making a quick run into Winchester to run errands, and picking up the city's highpoint as well (it is an independent city and thus counts as a county-like civil division... in other words, its highpoint is fair game!). We eventually worked our way southwards along US-340 to the city of Front Royal and the northern terminus of the Skyline Drive, arriving there about 10:30 a.m. in rather bad weather. We'd known a front was passing through, and sure enough, the clouds were thick, but the rain was mainly non-existent so we figured we might be okay with a little luck. Skyline Drive is a 100+ mile scenic byway built high into the mountains and essentially is the "backbone" of Shenandoah National Park. Just barely south of Front Royal on US-340, we found the entrance, paid our fee ($10) and started in. Less than two miles in we came to a downed tree blocking the road! A ranger was there helping direct traffic; fortunately, there was just enough room on the shoulder so that cars could bypass the fallen tree. A short stop at the visitor's center at milepost 4, and then we were really on our way!

The three highpoints we were interested in were Hogback Mountain near milepost 27 (Warren County highpoint), The Pinnacles near milepost 36 (Rappahannock County highpoint) and Hawksbill Mountain near milepost 45 (Page and Madison County highpoint, as well as the highpoint of the park). At first we intended to drive all the way south to Hawksbill and do that one first but with the iffy weather we figured we'd just do them as we came to them, so Hogback was first. Beth was driving and for much of the way, especially once above 2,000 feet elevation, there was much dense fog and very low visibility. Traffic was very light; it was deer and other animals that posed the most danger. Anyway, we eventually came to a large scenic pullout (Indian Garden) and parked, placing us just barely west of the highpoint. As we drove up some rangers were questioning some guy - we think he was a poacher and the rangers were clearly not very happy. The hike to the highpoint went fast as it was just about 1,000 feet of walking along a gated service road to the top of the small peak. Total gain was about 100 feet, and we found the highest rocks nearby the USGS benchmark. The Benchmark is actually located well below the highest rocks. If the elevation noted is for the benchmark itself, then the actual highpoint might be a good 6 feet higher, or about 3,480 feet, give or take a bit. We snapped some photos and then returned to our vehicle. Total time: about 20 minutes. When we returned, the rangers were gone and so was the guy, but his truck remained... so obviously they took him into custody.

From here we continued south. Whereas The Pinnacles came next, we opted instead to drive further south and bag Hawksbill next, then work our way back to the Pinnacles then out from there. The weather remained quite foggy, breezy and cold.