Ridge in the Appalachians in Virginia, United States
Massanutten Mountain
View of Massanutten Mountain from the east, looking west from Hawksbill Peak, with Luray in the foreground and the Great North Mountain in the background. August 2007.
Oblique air photo of Massanutten Mountain, looking southwest. The south fork of the Shenandoah River is visible to the left, as well as a part of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Image displaying the topographical differences between two roughly parallel ridges along Virginia's western border: one is the backbone of Shenandoah National Park (right), and the other is Massanutten Mountain (middle/left). Both rise above the Shenandoah Valley's rolling lowlands, with Massanutten dividing the valley roughly in half.
The mountain is divided into northern and southern sections, divided by the New Market Gap. The northern section consists of 3 roughly parallel ridges, forming 2 valleys. The wider, main valley, is called Fort Valley, while the smaller one is known as Little Fort Valley. The ridges of the northern section converge at New Market Gap. The southern section consists of a series of closely gathered ridges, separated by precipitous creek gorges.
Most of the range is part of the Lee Ranger District of the George Washington National Forest and contains the Elizabeth Furnace and Camp Roosevelt recreational areas. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club maintains the Massanutten Trail as well as several other hiking trails in the forest. Signal Knob, a former Civil War signal station on the northern peak of the mountain, is a popular destination.[1] The forest service also maintains several ATV trails.
In 1971, the Massanutten Mountain ski lodge and four-season resort village was established near the southern peak. The private resort has nearly doubled in size since Great Eastern Resorts bought it in 1995.
The geology of the Massanutten Mountains is dominated by Silurian Massanutten Sandstone, a lateral equivalent of the Tuscarora Formation in the Appalachian Mountains to the west, overlying the OrdovicianMartinsburg Formation. Erosion of the Martinsburg shale in some areas of the mountain caused the sandstone to break and slide to form talus slopes. The Massanutten Sandstone is folded in a synclinorium, and it outcrops at the ridge tops.[2]
