Big Meadows

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Participants in a field seminar at Big Meadows can look in the distance to see the Appalachian Mountain chain

Big Meadows is located on the Skyline Drive at Milepost 51 in the Shenandoah National Park in Page County, Virginia. The Park's Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center is located there, as is a lodge, camp store, and camping area.

Rapidan Camp, the restored historic (circa 1931) presidential fishing retreat of Herbert Hoover on the Rapidan River is nearby. It is accessed by a 4.1-mile round-trip hike on Mill Prong Trail, which begins on the Skyline Drive at Milam Gap (Mile 52.8). The National Park Service also offers guided van trips that leave from the Byrd Center at Big Meadows.

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the new park and the Skyline Drive at a ceremony at Big Meadows.

In 1962, during the Ash Wednesday Storm, Big Meadows recorded Virginia's greatest 24-hour snowfall with 33 inches and the storm snowfall was 42 inches.

In 1996, during the Blizzard of 1996, Big Meadows recorded Virginia's greatest storm snowfall accumulation at 47"

Archaeological work has uncovered evidence of prehistoric periods of human habitation as long ago as 2000 B.C. Big Meadows was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.