River
Shenandoah River
241 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Potomac River
In numbers
Length
241km
Average flow
85m³/s
Basin
7,607km²
Drop
327m
from 411 m to 84 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
241 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 411 m
- 34 kmBroadway3,807 people
- 93 kmWoodstock5,248 people
- 125 kmStrasburg6,586 people
- 163 kmShenandoah Farms3,033 people
- 221 kmShannondale3,358 people
- 239 kmHarpers Ferry269 people
- 240 kmShenandoah River Bridge
- 241 kmPotomac Riverat 84 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Virginia and West Virginia, United States
At the mouth it carries 85 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 29 seconds. It drops from 411 m to 84 m, 1.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 7,607 km², about the size of PR. 401,000 people live in it. Highest water: April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- StrasburgLargest city on its banks · 6,586 people
- Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 78 km from the cityCar hire at IAD airport (Dulles)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water17 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe3 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Shenandoah River, month by month
Highest water: April
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 31 m³/s in the lowest month to 230 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Shenandoah River: the basin in numbers
7,914 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 401,000people live in the basin
- 51/km²people per km²
- 441maverage altitude of the basin
- 995mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.0°Caverage air temperature
- 16%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 71% Forest
- 25% Cropland
- 12% Pasture
- 2% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Shenandoah River: what you find on the way
- 6WeirsBurnshire Dam, Warren Dam and 4 more
- 10LocksChesapeake and Ohio Canal, Lock 36, Lock 35 and 7 more
- 1Waterfalls
- 2RapidsThe Staircase, White Horse Rapids
- 1Canoe put-ins
- 17Boat rampsFront Royal Golf Club Boat Landing, Rte 7 Boat Ramp, Canoe & Kajak access only and 14 more
- 3River beachesRiver Access, Shenandoah Lake Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Shenandoah River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
22mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (22)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- High Knob9.0 km away · prominence 320 m728m
- Signal Knob13 km away642m
- Allens Mountain14 km away
- Buck Mountain12 km away
- Buzzard Rock10 km away
- Carson Mountain13 km away
- Catlett Mountain4.8 km away
- Compton Peak14 km away
14 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Shenandoah River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (12)
Also: Dry River, German River, North River, Cedar Creek, Christians Creek, Little Dry River, Middle River, Shoemaker River, Smith Creek (Virginia), Passage Creek, Little River, Long Marsh Run
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
United States296 km47 m³/s80 km awaySusquehanna RiverUnited States715 km1,100 m³/s143 km awayDelaware RiverUnited States579 km220 m³/s195 km awayAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/s232 km awayMonongahela RiverUnited States209 km360 m³/s232 km awayHudson RiverUnited States492 km210 m³/s353 km awayRoanoke RiverUnited States660 km310 m³/s388 km awayKanawha RiverUnited States156 km430 m³/s385 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q777907) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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