Sandy Bottom Overlook

Sandy Bottom Overlook sits at 2,697 feet on Skyline Drive, facing 330 degrees toward the Shenandoah Valley. The land drops 731 feet within 600 meters of the overlook, giving an open view down onto the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains as they descend into the valley below. The small community of Sandy Bottom lies in the valley beneath the overlook. Visible peaks and features include Bush Mountain to the west at 1.0 mile, Hanse Mountain and Giants Grave to the northwest, Dollys Knob to the north-northwest, Huckleberry Mountain to the north, Abrams Mountain to the north-northeast, and the more distant Elkton Spring and Bear Lithia Spring to the north-northwest. Harrisonburg lies 18.2 miles to the west-northwest, with Charlottesville 21.7 miles to the south-southeast and Staunton 30.4 miles to the west-southwest. The overlook falls between Swift Run Overlook and Bacon Hollow Overlook along the drive. This section of the Shenandoah Valley was historically more sparsely populated than the northern valley; when turnpikes were built in the 1790s to link towns to trade routes further east, smaller communities here were often bypassed in favor of faster routes between larger towns.