Sherando Lake 2025

April 20-30, 2025

I arrived at Sherando Lake Recreation Area on Sunday, April 20. It is located about twelve miles south of Waynesboro, Virginia, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is in the George Washington National Forest. One reaches the park entrance via RT 664. From the entrance there is a 2.3 mile paved, tree-lined road to the campground, a blend forest, mostly deciduous with some pines in the mix. When I arrived, most of the trees did not yet have leaves. There were hints of green on them, and there was a large maple in the center of “C” Loop with leaves, but when gazing out over the mountains, I saw the grey of exposed wood. When I left, ten days later, the opposite was true. The forest had come alive with green.

Stairs to Top of the Dam

I found Sherando last year in my national forests guidebook. It looked great on paper, a and it was even better in person. I stayed three nights. I was unaware, upon my arrival, that there are two lakes, called the Upper and the Lower. One passes the Lower on the drive to the campground. I discovered the upper while out walking the day after I arrived. It is adjacent to Loop C, where I was camped, but it is hidden from view by a large hill, which turned out to be an Earthen Dam about seventy feet high and a third of a mile long. It is completely covered with grass. I did not realize it was a dam until I walked up the 60+ wooden “stairs.” At the top, I was treated to a breathtaking sight of water and surrounding mountains. It is spectacular. The wooden stairs area actually pieces of 5” X 5” wood, about three feet long, that have been placed in the steep grassy incline. One can walk these stairs climbing to the view at the top. The stairs descend the other side, back down about fifty feet to a path that circumvents the lake. The top of the dam is about fifteen yards wide, covered with mowed grass, buttercups and dandelions. It’s a great place to sit and ponder life while taking in a seemingly ever present breeze and listening to a myriad of bird songs.

Stairs Leading Down to the Lake

In the ten days of my stay, Merlin detected forty-eight different types of birds.  And one night while in my van I heard an owl.

American Crow                                                       American Redstart                                

American Robin                                                      Black-and-white Warbler            

Black-capped Chickadee                                  Black-throated Green Warbler

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher                                        Blue-headed Vireo

Blue Jay                                                                      Brown Creeper

Brown-headed Cowbird                                      Carolina Chickadee

Chipping Sparrow                                                  Common Grackle

Common Yellowthroat                                        Dark-eyed Junco

Downy Woodpecker                                             Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Kingbird                                                     Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Whip-poor-will                                       Grey-crested Flycatcher

Hooded Warbler                                                     House Sparrow

Indigo Bunting                                                         Louisiana Waterthrush

Mourning Dove                                                       Pine Siskin

Pine Warbler                                                            Northern Cardinal

Northern Flicker                                                     Northern Mockingbird

Northern Parula                                                      Ovenbird

Pileated Woodpecker                                          Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-eyed Vireo                                                       Red-winged Blackbird

Scarlet Tanager                                                      Tufted Titmouse

Wood Thrush                                                           Worm-eating Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler                                      Yellow-throated Vireo

Yellow Warbler                                                        White-breasted Nuthatch

White-eyed Vireo                                                   White-throated Sparrow

The campground has three loops (A, B, and C) totaling about seventy sites. Loops B and C have electric hookups. All loops seem to fill on weekends, while during the week there were plenty of sites available.

The lakes are stocked with trout every couple of weeks. They attract a lot of people for fishing. There is a beach on the lower lake, and on weekends it becomes a busy place, filled with picnickers, sunbathers, swimmers, kayakers, and sailboarders.

I rode my bike nine of the ten days I was here. There were two main options. I could ride exclusively RT 664, also known as Torrey Ridge Road, or I could ride a portion of Torrey Ridge up to the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). Torrey Ridge Road runs about 7.5 miles from Lyndhurst to the campground, then it continues another five miles to reach the Parkway. I did rides on Torrey Ridge six of the days here. The other three, I rode up on the Parkway. Total mileage for the nine days of riding was 280 miles.

Blue Ridge Parkway

The section of Torrey Ridge I rode on those six days was not flat, but it was not too hilly. In cycling there is a term that describes it, “false flat. At one end, the elevation was around 1400’ and at the other end it was around 1900’. The distance end to end was around ten miles, and 500 feet elevation change over ten miles at a steady pitch looks kind of flat, and in many places it feels flat, but one in one direction it was gradually climbing, and doing the work necessitated. In the other direction, it is a breeze, much faster with a gradual loss of elevation.

The climb to the Blue Ridge Parkway has an elevation of change of about 800’ over three miles. Some is about 7% gradient, but most of the distance in in the 9%-11% range, a true hill! You could think of it this way. A basketball court is 94 feet long, with the rim being 10 feet high. So a road going the length of the court would be steep enough to reach rim height in those 94 feet. That’s a 9.4% gradient. Think of this three mile climb as 168 basketball court lengths (or 54 football fields 😊) with that gradient.

Riding on the BRP is exhilarating. There are some level areas, but mostly the road is either going up or going down. Torrey Ridge Road enters the parkway at Mile 16. One can ride either direction and find you are climbing to over 3200’. Bald Mountain Overview if riding south and Raven’s Roost if riding north are the high points I rode. These climbs are less than 10% and not longer than three miles. They are a great deal of fun. There are numerous pull-offs, viewing areas for cars, and on the bike you have many more opportunities to enjoy the great scenery and views. The  views are continually mesmerizing. And bird life along the parkway flourishes. It seems they are singing all the time.

The park appears to be run almost exclusively by volunteers. There were four sets of volunteer camp hosts. Steven and Lauren hosted Loop C. They are from the northeast and do one month volunteer stints here and there as the mood fits. They were kindly, talkative, and welcoming. I met a retired couple from nearby Charlottesville who were interesting and fun to talk with. I met a woman, a weekend camper, from Roanoke who invited me to her campfire and gave me a visual tour of her Class C camper. It was an impressive vehicle.

And I met Pierrette again! We met here last year, when I stayed those three nights. She is from Quebec. Last year she said she visits this place in the spring to get away from the cold that lingers up north. She’s an avid bike rider, carrying two bikes with her on her van, and she also cross country skis regularly. At this time of the year the ski season is coming to a close, and she comes south to begin the riding season. She has had enough cold weather. I was surprised to see her, as we had not exchanged any contact information last year. But, I walked by a campsite that had a van and two bikes, and there she was! The van is new. Last year, she had a car with a small trailer. So, we talked a little each day and had an enjoyable time. It was a great surprise to see her again.