Many people choose Big Meadows because it is very large, and therefore usually has spaces available after the other campgrounds have filled up. It's also right around the middle of Skyline Drive, so there's easy access to lots of different places. I stayed there for a night in September because it was the last place available on two weeks of notice, and also because it was the closest campground to Old Rag, which I hiked the next day. I had hope that after a pretty bad first impression things would get better, but they only got worse.
I set up camp in the late afternoon after driving five hours from New Jersey. The campsite was pitifully small, as were all the others around it (I was in the A-loop). It was noisy, but I had been assured by the park's website that quiet hours were enforced. To be honest I'm not sure why I believed that, because I have yet to stay in a campground anywhere where the management has enough guts to tell obnoxious people to shut up, but I held out hope for Shenandoah because it is, after all, a National Park.
Unfortunately, as the night wore on, it became obvious that no one was coming to my rescue as my noisy, drunk neighbors partied long into the night. I consider myself a pretty serious hiker, even if I am still only a beginner, so I was anxious to be well-rested as I would be waking before sunrise to start my journey to Old Rag. To my dismay, the group partied well past midnight, complete with yelling and music blasting from their car. Now, I am not the kind of person to sit back and take that kind of thing. I am a self-termed campground snob, and have no qualms about telling people to be quiet after hours and have done so on several occasions. I didn't this time, though, for a few reasons, not the least of which being that the group had some of the most foul and even violent language coming out of their mouths that I had heard in a long time. You usually don't get that kind of thing when you're camping, but it happened here, and I frankly felt uncomfortable confronting these people since I was by myself.
Now, it might be easy to dismiss this as just one bad experience, but, in my opinion, when the park rangers do nothing to stop a serious problem like this there is no guarantee that they ever will. Even in spite of the noise the campground was lacking. I try to look on the bright side of course, and even with this bad camping experience I had an absolutely wonderful time on my first solo trip to Shenandoah (see my Old Rag and Stony Man posts). This trip just served to confirm, as so many have in the past, that staying in campgrounds simply isn't for me. I am easing my way into solely backpacking, and can't wait until my dependency on campgrounds has completely come to an end.
If, like me, you go to nature for solitude, avoid Big Meadows at all costs. If you get stuck there anyway, just smile and remind yourself not to do it again. At least a bad day in nature is better than a good day stuck inside!
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