Massanutten Mountain is a synclinal

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

in the

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending ...

, located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. It is near the

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

state line. Contrasting Ridges in Virginia - Labeled

Geography

The mountain bisects the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...

just east of Strasburg in

Shenandoah County Shenandoah County (formerly Dunmore County) is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 44,186. Its county seat is Woodstock. It is part of the Shenandoah Valley region of Virgin ...

in the north, to its highest peak east of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County in the south. The mountain is divided into northern and southern sections, divided by the

New Market Gap New Market Gap is a wind gap in the Massanutten Mountain in Virginia. The gap is located approximately in the middle of the range, dividing it into north and south sections. U.S. Route 211 runs through the gap, connecting New Market in the S ...

. 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 Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

. 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. On the eastern side of the mountain range lie the

Page Valley The Page Valley is a small valley geographically and culturally associated with the Shenandoah Valley. The valley is located between the Massanutten and Blue Ridge mountain ranges in western Virginia. Geography The valley is approximately lo ...

and the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

. On the western side lie the North-Central Shenandoah Valley and the Great North Mountain of the

Alleghany Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less develo ...

Recreation

Most of the range is part of the Lee Ranger District of the

George Washington National Forest The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests is an administrative entity combining two U.S. National Forests into one of the largest areas of public land in the Eastern United States. The forests cover of land in the Appalachian Mountai ...

and contains the Elizabeth Furnace and Camp Roosevelt recreational areas. The

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is a volunteer organization that works to maintain hiking trails in the Washington, D.C. area of the United States. PATC was founded in 1927 to protect and develop the local section of the then new Appala ...

maintains the

Massanutten Trail The Massanutten Trail is a National Recreation Trail located in George Washington National Forest in Central Virginia. Much of the path is steep and rugged terrain, and presents many mountain vistas. The trail traverses the Massanutten Range ...

as well as several other hiking trails in the forest.

Signal Knob Signal Knob is the northern peak of Massanutten Mountain in the Ridge and Valley Appalachians with an elevation of . It is located in George Washington National Forest in Shenandoah County, Virginia, Shenandoah County and Warren County, Virginia, ...

, a former

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

signal station on the northern peak of the mountain, is a popular destination. 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.

Flora and fauna

Wildlife on Massanutten includes

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

wild turkey The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an Upland game bird, upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of Turkey (bird), turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

timber rattlesnake The timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake, or banded rattlesnake (''Crotalus horridus'') Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of ...

, and luna moths. Significant

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

includes mayapple, bluets, wild

lupin ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...

cardinal flower ''Lobelia cardinalis'', the cardinal flower ( syn. ''L. fulgens''), is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae native to the Americas, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States ...

, and pinxter flower.

Geology

The geology of the Massanutten Mountains is dominated by

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

Massanutten Sandstone Massanutten is a census-designated place (CDP) in Rockingham County, Virginia, United States, built around a ski resort. The population was 2,291 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Harrisonburg Metropolitan Statistical Area Geography Massa ...

, a lateral equivalent of the

Tuscarora Formation The Silurian Tuscarora Formation — also known as Tuscarora Sandstone or Tuscarora Quartzite — is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, USA. Description The Tuscarora is a thin- to thick-bedded fine-gr ...

in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

to the west, overlying the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

Martinsburg 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.Frye, Keith. ''Roadside Geology of Virginia.'' Mountain Press Publishing Company; Missoula, 1986.

Mountains of Massanutten

* Massanutten Peak * Green Mountain *

Three Top Mountain 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

Powell Mountain Powell Mountain (or "Powells Mountain") is a mountain ridge of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians of the Appalachian Mountains. It is a long and narrow ridge, running northeast to southwest, from about Norton, Virginia to near Tazewell, Tennessee ...

Little Crease Mountain Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

* Short Mountain * Mertins Rock * Bowman Mountain *

Kerns Mountain Kerns may refer to: * Plural of Kern *Kerns (surname) * Kerns, Ontario, Canada * Kerns, Portland, Oregon, United States * Kerns, Switzerland, a village and municipality See also * * Kernstown, Virginia, United States ** Battle of Kernstown ...

* Catback Mountain *

Waterfall Mountain A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

First Mountain First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

* Second Mountain * Third Mountain * Fourth Mountain

Notes

{{Authority control Mountains of Page County, Virginia Mountains of Rockingham County, Virginia Mountains of Shenandoah County, Virginia Mountains of Warren County, Virginia Ridges of Virginia Shenandoah River