In Thomas Jefferson’s Shenandoah National Park

“To your right comes the Shenandoah, which has travelled a hundred miles along the mountain slopes in search of an outlet. To your left approaches the Potomac, also seeking a passage. Where they meet, they surge together against the mountain, cleave it asunder and continue towards the sea... This spectacle is worth the journey across the Atlantic.” The words used by Thomas Jefferson would suffice to describe the beauty of Shenandoah National Park, the first stop on this road trip at the dawn of the North American autumn. The third president in US history uttered these words at Harpers Ferry and expressed his admiration at the chance to encounter even the black bears that inhabit the slopes near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. In the town of Winchester, you can visit the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, admire the trees in the garden of the 18th-century Glen Burnie House, and then head towards Front Royal, where the Skyline Caverns are home to rare crystalline formations, stopping off at the Shenandoah Valley Overlook to gaze down upon the peaks of the Massanutten Mountains. Meanwhile, from Beahms Gap Overlook, the Appalachian Trail begins to wind its way through the landscape. You’ll undoubtedly be amazed by the organ-pipe formations inside the Luray Caverns, the largest cave complex in the eastern United States, which boast the extraordinary Stalacpipe Organ invented in 1954 by Leland W. Sprinkle. Likewise, the six waterfalls of White Oak Canyon and the torrent of water plunging 21 metres at Dark Hollow Falls enchant and roar in unison.