On our visit to Shenandoah National Park, we walked the Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail. It is located a few miles from the southern entrance to Shenandoah. The Blue Ridge Tunnel was originally a railroad tunnel. It was completed in 1858 and was in use by the railroad until 1944. The tunnel is over 4,000 ft long and has no built-in lighting. Headlamps or flashlights are recommended if you plan to walk or bike through the tunnel.
We started at the East Trailhead of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, which is located near Afton, VA. The trail is 4.5 miles roundtrip. Because we had already hiked nearly 10 miles that day, we weren’t planning on completing the entire trail, but we did make it a point to walk all the way through the tunnel. The walk through the tunnel alone took about 15 minutes. The further you hiked into the tunnel, the more the light behind you disappeared and the tiny dot of light in front of you grew. It was also nice and cool in the tunnel even though it was a warmer day outside.
This might have seemed like a “little stop”, but we spent about an hour here and we really enjoyed our walk through the tunnel. It was such a cool experience because it was so unique! To read more about the history of the tunnel and present-day trail-use information, visit the Nelson County website: Blue Ridge Tunnel – VISIT NELSON COUNTY. To read more about our time in Shenandoah National Park, visit the blog post: Shenandoah National Park – Miles of Yellow Lines.