Short, Kid Friendly Hikes in Shenandoah National Park
Lace up those hiking boots and let’s head out onto some short, kid friendly hikes in Shenandoah National Park!
If your family is anything like mine, your kids like the idea of hiking—and are even enthusiastic about hitting the trail—but their little legs just can’t handle overly long hikes.
Add in a mountainous terrain, and my kids are even less likely to make it to the end of a 5+ mile hike.
Thankfully, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia has some great options for inexperienced hikers or those who need shorter hikes.
Here are my recommendations for best family hikes in Shenandoah National Park.
The Camping Kiddos on a section of the Appalachian Trail within Shenandoah National Park
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What Makes These the Best Family Hikes in Shenandoah National Park?
There are some truly amazing hiking families out there who have taken their kids along for the duration of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, or the Continental Divide Trail.
While I am super, super inspired by those families, I also have to face the reality of what my kids are capable of at this moment in their lives.
Most families are like ours, and just want to get out into nature for a little bit while visiting Shenandoah National Park.
With that in mind, I’ve compiled this selection of short hikes in Shenandoah National Park.
Each recommendation would be great for a morning or afternoon activity and can be completed in 1-2 hours, depending on how slowly your kids make their way down the trail.
None have particularly challenging elevation changes, steep cliffs, or difficult terrain, meaning these are wonderful even if you’re hiking with toddlers.
Prep for your trip with little ones with these mom-tested tips for hiking with toddlers!
These trails are interesting for older kids, too, as there is an element of history, geography, or geology involved in each.
Get the family out there with these easy but engaging short hikes in Shenandoah National Park.
Kid Friendly Hikes in Shenandoah National Park
When you’re planning your Shenandoah National Park with kids itinerary, you’ll want to plan at least 1 or 2 hikes.
>> Read my full list of must-do activities when visiting Shenandoah National Park with kids! <<
Doing so allows you to get out of the car on Skyline Drive and actually experience the beauty of the park.
Below, you’ll find descriptions of our favorite kid-friendly hiking options in the park, as well as parking information, each trail’s location off of Skyline Drive, available amenities at each stop, and other important details.
Doing one or two can easily be incorporated into a 1 day visit to the park, or you can do all of them if you’re visiting for a longer period.
See all of my suggestions on how to incorporate hikes, activities and day trips in this comprehensive Shenandoah National Park itinerary.
Fox Hollow Trail
Camping Kiddos on the Fox Hollow Trail
Location: Skyline Drive Mile 6
Trail length: 1.3 mile loop
Why This Trail is Great for Kids:
Fox Hollow Trail is a TRACK trail, which is one way that the National Parks, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is encouraging kids to get outside.
These trails have been chosen as accessible and kid friendly, and there are specially designed pamphlets at the trailhead for kids to use as they walk along.
At the Fox Hollow Trail, you can find the TRACK trail kids’ booklet on the side of the trailhead sign, just across Skyline Drive from the Dickey Ridge Visitors Center.
Once we grabbed the booklets, we headed off into the woods and quickly felt as if we were a million miles away from the visitors center.
The trail loops down into the hollow, which once belonged to the Fox family.
This is a great way to introduce the area pre-park, and start a discussion on what your kids think should’ve been done with the inhabitants once the park was being established.
Along the way, you’ll see lots of items in the woods from the Fox family, including a large grindstone, old metal pieces of machinery, and, perhaps most impressively, the huge piles of stones that the family stacked up as they prepared this area for farming.
You’ll also pass a small cemetery where several of the Fox family members are buried.
The trail slopes down for the first half, and the second half slowly gains that elevation back.
It’s nothing that you and your kids can’t handle, but it is helpful to note that the second half will take longer than the first half.
NOTE: there are a few signs in this area about bears.
While we didn’t see any bears—or any signs that they’d been around—you should always stay alert when hiking in known bear habitat.
Parking: There’s no room for parking directly at the trailhead, but you can find ample parking just across Skyline Drive at the Dickey Ridge Visitors Center.
Get your hiking kids ready for anything with the best camping gifts for kids.
Limberlost Trail
Limberlost Trail
Location: Skyline Drive Mile 41
Trail length: 1.3 mile loop trail
Why This Trail is Great for Kids: Limberlost Trail is another TRACK trail, so make sure to pick up the free kids’ pamphlet at the start of your hike.
(You can find them at the trailhead sign in a small clear plastic box.)
Print out the TRACK booklet for the Limberlost trail here.
Kids will learn about the forest and its inhabitants along the way, and they’ll be intrigued by the carpet of ferns in several areas.
The trail is flat and covered in gravel, which makes this a great introduction to hiking.
Inexperienced older kids will enjoy the serene surroundings while tackling the loop and looking for local wildlife.
Keep in mind that there aren’t any facilities at the trailhead, so you’ll want to do water bottle fill-ups and bathroom stops at the nearby Skyland Lodge area.
Skyland Lodge is less than 2 miles from the trailhead, but don’t attempt to walk down Skyline Drive to get there.
Parking: There is a well marked parking lot at the trailhead, also named Limberlost.
There’s easy on and off from Skyline Drive to this parking lot.
It’s not a large parking area, but Limberlost isn’t as popular a spot as Dark Hollow Falls. Still, plan ahead on holidays and summer weekends.
Dive more deeply into what you’re seeing and doing in the park with the highly recommended Shenandoah National Park tour on the GuideAlong App.
This app is our go-to when visiting national parks as the guide plays automatically based on your GPS location and doesn’t require a cell signal once the tour is downloaded to your phone.
You’ll get information on the park’s history, geology, wildlife, and more.
Since we can start and stop the tour as much as we’d like, it’s great for traveling with kids.
It’s like having a tour guide in your car with you—but at an extremely reasonable price.
Appalachian Trail Segment
Location: Skyline Drive Mile 24
Trail length: approximately .5 mile each way
Why This Trail is Great for Kids:
They can boast that they’ve walked (part of) the Appalachian Trail after venturing out here!
While the Appalachian Trail follows Skyline Drive closely for 104 miles through the park, your family likely isn’t going to want to take on the entire section.
There are several places to hop on and off the Appalachian Trail as it intersects (and sometimes almost directly overlays) existing trails in the park.
If you’d like to introduce your kids to the Appalachian Trail—and the idea of long-distance hiking—there’s a great short section near Elkwallow in the park.
From the parking lot near the picnic area, walk down the trail by the vault toilet, and then take the first right you come to in the trail.
If you were to take this trail straight on, you’ll enter the park’s backcountry and eventually make it to Jeremys Run Overlook. I don’t recommend this trail for families with younger kids and/or inexperienced hikers at its more than 3 miles each way to the overlook.
At one of the Appalachian Trail markers near Elkwallow
Once you make that right turn, you’ll see a grassy meadow to your left. You’re on the Appalachian Trail!
Follow this path for about .5 a mile, where this section again T-bones into another park trail (in this case, the Elkwallow-Mathews Arm Trail).
If you want to continue walking on this section of the Appalachian Trail, carefully cross Skyline Drive and continue on for as long as your kids are interested.
We found that ours were perfectly happy with the approximately 0.5 mile out-and-back that we did.
There’s a concrete and metal trail marker at the intersection with the Elkwallow-Mathews Arm trail if you’re looking for a photo op.
This trail section is interesting as there are large pine trees to walk under and around, plenty of rocks in and around the path (some of which look as if they were placed in perfectly straight lines by Mother Nature), and lots of sticks to haul around if your kids are anything like mine.
The trail does slope upwards gradually, so the way back to the parking lot is easier than the way up.
There’s a vault toilet at the trailhead and a plumbed toilet (open seasonally) in the picnic area.
Parking: Elkwallow is a great picnic spot, and there’s a lot of parking in a horseshoe shape around the picnic tables.
Elkwallow is well signposted on Skyline Drive and on the national park map you’ll get upon paying the entrance fee.
Discover more tips on visiting other U.S. national parks with kids!
Dark Hollow Falls Trail
Dark Hollow Falls
Location: Skyline Drive Mile 50
Trail length: 0.75 miles each way
Why This Trail is Great for Kids: The Dark Hollow Falls Trail is short but fun!
You’ll climb down and over rocks as you walk through the beautiful forest near the Big Meadows Visitors Center.
For this reason, your family will need to be relatively mobile, or at least able to walk on uneven ground.
There’s nothing here than an adventurous preschooler can’t handle, but the path is less smooth than the others on this trail.
For your family’s trouble, you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful waterfall at the end.
Kids will definitely want to dip their toes into the pool after their hike, so plan to wear a water hiking shoe like these kids’ Keens Newports (our favorites!).
Because of the steep incline of the trail, getting back to the parking lot is less fun than getting to the falls, but you’ll make it!
Download the official NPS trail map for Dark Hollow Falls here.
There aren’t any facilities at the trailhead, but you can access water fountains and bathrooms just across Skyline Drive at the Big Meadows Visitors Center.
Parking: There’s plentiful parking at the trailhead, but even that fills up on sunny days in the late mornings and early afternoons.
If you can’t find a spot at the trailhead, you could park at the nearby visitors center and carefully walk down Skyline Drive.
For a kid-friendly spot that’s close to all of these trails, head over to Shenandoah River State Park, one of the best RV campgrounds near Shenandoah National Park.
