Front Royal Campground

Front Royal is a 146-site campground just 2 miles from the northern entrance to Shenandoah National Park. Recreational opportunities include a pool, waterslide, mini golf, and pond fishing.

We got to the north entrance gates to Shenandoah National Park about an hour or so before sunset, only to find that the park road was already closed for the evening. I couldn’t believe it. How can they close a national park? I even had a hike planned for the evening. I turned to the family expecting to see the same sense of disappointment, but all I saw was relief—relief that they were saved from one of the mom’s maniacal attempts to squeeze just a little more activity into an already full day. We made a u-turn and headed to the Front Royal KOA, about 2 miles from the entrance gate. The kids were ecstatic when they saw the miniature golf course. I’m sure that from their perspective this was much better than a hike. As the sun lowered over the Shenandoah Mountains, Herb and I sipped wine and watched the kids play somewhat delightfully, smacking golf balls indiscriminately into windmills and bushes. At one point, Tom’s ball got caught under an obstacle and Herb had to get down on his stomach and reach his arm in to extract it, kicking my wine over in the process. Ah yes, family vacations.

Later at evening, the kids dragged us over to the campground gift shop. After much putzing and fondling of nosh, they convinced us that they absolutely needed to buy coonskin hats. They were pretty cute and quite appropriate for our visit to Shenandoah.