Compton Peak

Author's Comments

Most people who drive Skyline Drive in October never leave their cars long enough to find this place. The trailhead sits near mile ten, close enough to the park entrance that it feels preliminary, like a warm-up for something bigger. It is not a warm-up. The hike is short and the summit arrives before you expect it. What stops me every time is the basalt. Columnar formations, cracked into hexagonal geometry by ancient cooling, rising out of the ridge like something that does not belong to this landscape. And yet they have been here longer than the valley below them. I have shot them in early November when frost still clung to the shaded faces, the columns going almost black against pale sky, and the contrast felt genuinely strange. Turn around from the basalt and the Shenandoah Valley opens west. Front Royal sits at the near edge, the river bending away into the distance, the Alleghenies soft and blue at the far horizon. Late afternoon in October is when the valley fills with shadow from the bottom up and the ridgelines hold light longest. That hour is worth planning around. This is a quiet summit. On a Saturday morning in peak foliage season I have shared it with two other people. The geology alone makes it worth the two miles. The view is a second reason. The solitude is a third.

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