Guests here may want to pack their inner tubes, swimming togs, and fishing rods; they’ll allprove useful at the Inn at Narrow Passage, which sits right on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. Ed Markel, owner of the inn, will kindly put in any crew of human waterbugs about a mile south, and from there it’s a 3Y2-hour float to reach home. The oldest section of the inn was built as a way station on the Great Wagon Road (now U.S. 11) around 1740, and the Markels meticulously restored it.
The older guest rooms evoke Colonial times with queen-size canopy beds, wood floors, and stenciling. Newer rooms, though similar, open onto porches. The Stonewall Jackson Room, a heavily requested chamber in the older section, served as the Confederate general’s headquarters during the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1863. When the valley is blanketed in snow, the inn is a cozy place—especially the living room, with its handmade reproduction couches and big limestone fireplace (one of 10 here, seven in guest rooms). Chef Jonathan Gardner serves local fare for breakfast and at dinner Saturday nights, when his rainbow trout recipe is a favorite draw.
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