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Fat Man Walking
03-25-2008, 00:17
I will be traveling through the park this summer and was trying to plan my food situation. I plan on eating at the waysides and camp stores but was wondering about the following:

Is there much of a selection of food at Lewis Mt Campground? Wayside type food? Mountain House/Alpine Type food?

What about at Thorton Gap/Panorama? Good enough for a couple of candy bars to get to Elkwallow Wayside? Is there a blackberry milk shake there?

Thanks

minnesotasmith
03-25-2008, 02:00
I will be traveling through the park this summer and was trying to plan my food situation. I plan on eating at the waysides and camp stores but was wondering about the following:

Is there much of a selection of food at Lewis Mt Campground? Wayside type food? Mountain House/Alpine Type food?

What about at Thorton Gap/Panorama? Good enough for a couple of candy bars to get to Elkwallow Wayside? Is there a blackberry milk shake there?

Thanks

The restaurants and stores in the Shenandoah are IMO both overpriced. Instead of resupplying there, I'd suggest hitting a major supermarket in Waynesboro, and waiting til you get out of the park for any major purchases. (Go ahead and get one lunch at a restaurant wayside.)

Think of it as an act of trail patriotism; if sellers of overpriced services find few takers, their prices are likely to come down, closer to something reasonable.

jlb2012
03-25-2008, 08:07
Thorton Gap/Panorama - there is nothing but water and a rest room there these days

Lewis Mt. Campstore - doesn't have much - think of it as resupply at a poor convience store - I think that they do have some food that you can microwave at the store to eat like a hamburger - it has been a couple years since I was in there however and they might have improved - you can however get a shower there if that is of interest

I sort of agree with MS - Aramark (the SNP vendor) prices are rather high and generally a rip off for what you get when it comes to food

bigcranky
03-25-2008, 10:55
Thorton Gap/Panorama - there is nothing but water and a rest room there these days

Yeah, but we sure appreciated the cold water out of their faucet on one very hot June day. Soaked my head, my feet, and drank a couple of gallons. Add a king size Snickers bar for pure heaven.

Yes, food in SNP is overpriced. It's a national park. Get used to it. You can buy camp food and snacks at the various waysides and camp stores. I don't recall backpacking-type freeze dried meals anywhere (though I wasn't looking for them). They had stuff that car campers want -- chips, cold drinks, hot dogs, canned food, candy bars, ice, that sort of thing. We bought snack food, but that was about it.

I really liked stopping in for a meal at the restaurants. (So shoot me, I like food.) The cafe at Big Meadows, out by Skyline Drive, has great breakfast -- good coffee, great pancakes with blackberry syrup. Oh, and good grits, too.

We also splurged on a cabin at Skyland. That was nice, but dinner in their restaurant sucked -- bad food overpriced. Breakfast the next morning was better.

We're trying to talk our daughter into hitting Shenandoah this summer, after she graduates from high school. Might work out. Nice place for a hike, especially if you can avoid weekends.

Blissful
03-25-2008, 11:38
Last I heard blackberry milkshake was still at Elkwallow. But my hamburger there was awful.

Panorama is closed. No food.

OHBob
03-25-2008, 11:41
Last summer I stopped by the Lewis Mtn. campstore. Not a huge selection of foods for backpackers, but they did have the Mountain House meals and one could make do for a couple of days.

Appalachian Tater
03-25-2008, 11:42
Some of the blackberry shakes in the park are just made with syrup instead of blackberry ice cream. Ask before buying. The fast food served in the park is very mediocre and overpriced.

unl1988
03-25-2008, 11:44
My blackberry shake experience was not that good. Me and my ex came off the trail anticipating blackberry shakes, when we watched the lady making them - instead of using a scoop of fresh blackberries or frozen, she used blackberry syrup from a bottle. Kind of a let down, but we drank them anyway.

There were a couple of restaraunts as I recall, one nice sit down one and a couple of fast food sort. There were also convinience store type stores that had quick eat items, and a few camping sorts of food. Definately not backpacking sort of food. Could you live on it? yes, just don't expect much outside of what you would find in a truckstop convinience store.

Lone Wolf
03-25-2008, 11:45
that's how they've always been made

DAKS
03-25-2008, 19:15
a good selection of mtn. house meals at big meadows campstore. was just there this past weekend. they also had polar pure tablets, a few closed cell foam pads, shower shoes etc. a pretty decent selection really. they also have a pretty good selection of groceries in my opinion. last fall i noticed that they had boxed wine too(single serving size)! very nice!

astrogirl
03-26-2008, 09:57
Think of it as an act of trail patriotism; if sellers of overpriced services find few takers, their prices are likely to come down, closer to something reasonable.

Fat chance.

That might be true if it were a free market in the SNP, but it very much is not. All the concessions have been granted to Aramark by the Dept of the Interior, and they need compete with no one and never will.

Fat Man Walking
03-26-2008, 11:27
Everyone has an opinion.

In this thread, that I asked two specific questions:
1) What's the food selection for non-grill food like at the Lewis Mountain Camp store?
2) Is there enough of a selection at the Panorama/Thorton's Gap for me to get a couple of candy bars for a snack?

has turned into a discussion of the free enterprise system in the United States, recipes for Blackberry Milkshakes, and prices at the campstores where there is a captive market. Well Duhhhhhhh.......

If you answered my question, Thanks. But if you took it upon yourself to change the direction of this, then shame on you. Geezz......