Old Rag Mountain rising above low cloud at sunset.

Shenandoah, measured in minutes.

Pick a trailhead and see places to stay ranked by the real drive. Pick a stay and see what you can actually reach.

Longest drive
Old Rag at sunset · John Brighenti · CC BY 2.0

Old Rag's main parking lot is closed through November

Source: National Park Service, checked Oct 29, 2026

Same mountain. Two trailheads. 51 minutes apart.

Old Rag's Berry Hollow lot and its Nethers lots are 3.2 miles apart as the crow flies. By road it is 14 miles around the mountain. A map that sorts cabins by straight-line distance will send you to the wrong side.

Straight line
3.2 mi
By road
14 mi
Drive
51 min

Where to stay for Old Rag

Old Rag's two trailheads The Berry Hollow lot and the Nethers overflow lots are 3.2 miles apart in a straight line. The drive between them runs south through Syria and east through Etlan: 14 miles and about 51 minutes. Old Rag summit Syria Etlan P Berry Hollow lot Saddle Trail P Nethers lots Ridge Trail and circuit 1 mile N

Route, trailheads and towns drawn to scale from OpenStreetMap. Mountain contours are illustrative.

Where should you stay for the hike you want?

Choose a trailhead. Stays are ordered by the drive from their door to the parking lot, not by a radius on a map.

  1. Panorama across a field toward Old Rag from Route 231 near Etlan.

    Birch's Library

    Syria · via Berry Hollow

    2min
  2. Fields toward the Blue Ridge from Route 231 near Etlan, Madison County.

    Graves Mountain Farm & Lodges

    Syria · Unclaimed · via Berry Hollow

    20min
  3. Main Street in Sperryville, Virginia, in October.

    Hopkins Ordinary

    Sperryville · Unclaimed · via Nethers

    25min
  4. The Inn at Little Washington at Christmastime.

    The Inn at Little Washington

    Washington · Unclaimed · via Nethers

    34min
  5. Exterior of the Skyland dining room and taproom.

    Skyland

    Skyline Drive, mile 41.7 · Unclaimed · via Nethers

    1 hr 4 min
  6. Moss phlox on the rocks at Crescent Rock Overlook in spring.

    Lewis Mountain Cabins

    Skyline Drive, mile 57.5 · Unclaimed · via Nethers

    1 hr 23 min
Rank every stay on the map

Free-flow drive estimates on the OpenStreetMap road network. Real trips with traffic or weather take longer.

Six hikes for late October

In most years color moves down the ridges through the second half of October. Start early: tickets do not reserve parking.

Hikers in the granite chute on the Old Rag rock scramble.
Very strenuous Ticket

Old Rag Circuit

9.4 mi · 2,348 ft gain · 7 hr 30 min

Old Rag overflow lots

Early fall at Dark Hollow Falls.
Moderate

Dark Hollow Falls

1.4 mi · 440 ft gain · 1 hr 15 min

Dark Hollow Falls lot, mile 50.7

Stony Man in autumn.
Easiest

Stony Man

1.6 mi · 340 ft gain · 1 hr

Stony Man lot, mile 41.7

Five gateways, one ridge. Know the drive before you pick a town.

Old Rag from the Old Rag View Overlook on Skyline Drive in fall.

Old Rag

One summit, two trailheads, fifty minutes apart by road.

Sperryville to the Nethers lots: 25 min

Panorama across a field toward Old Rag from Route 231 near Etlan.

Syria and Whiteoak Canyon

The quiet side of the park, at the bottom of the waterfalls.

Syria to the lower Whiteoak lot: 17 min

Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville at sunset.

Sperryville

A river village at the foot of Thornton Gap.

Sperryville to Skyline Drive: 14 min

Skyline Drive in the fall, North District around mile 12.

Skyline Drive: Skyland to Big Meadows

Waterfalls, summits and the park lodges along the high ridge.

Skyland to Dark Hollow Falls: 20 min

Fields toward the Blue Ridge from Route 231 near Etlan, Madison County.

Madison

The county seat, its wineries and the southern way up to Skyline Drive.

Madison to Syria: 17 min

Sunrise at Thornton Hollow Overlook, above the Sperryville side.

List your stay for free. Keep every booking.

Hosts near Old Rag, Whiteoak Canyon, Madison and Sperryville can join the founding host program. Your listing shows guests exactly how close you are to the trails they came for, and sends them to your own booking site.

Apply as a founding host How listings work

  • No listing fees

    Creating, claiming and editing a listing is free, permanently.

  • No commission on your bookings

    Guests book on your own site. We never sit between you and them.

  • No paid placement

    Order comes from drive time and listing quality. Nobody can buy a higher spot.

Guides with the drive times worked out

A hiker looks toward Old Rag from Pinnacles Overlook in autumn.

Where to stay for Old Rag

Pick your trailhead first. The two Old Rag lots are 50 minutes apart by road, and that changes which stays make sense.

How we keep it honest

Drive times from the road network. Every time on this site comes from OSRM routing over OpenStreetMap, computed October 19, 2026. No straight-line shortcuts.

Every fact has a source. Trail stats, ticket rules and closures link to the National Park Service page they came from, with the date we checked.

No fake availability. We never show prices or open dates we cannot verify. You confirm and book with the host.

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