Red Gate Cabin

Love these rocks!

Volcanic rock? In Virginia?

Although Virginia no longer has volcanoes, hundreds of millions of years ago this place experienced intense volcanic activity. More than 500 million years ago, as the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart, lava spilled out between the tectonic plates and helped form the rock that composes the Blue Ridge Mountains today. This lava solidified into an igneous rock called basalt. Basalt crystalizes, forming hexagonal columns. Devil's Tower National Monument consists of the same material. You can see this crystal formation, known as columnar jointing, on the Compton Peak Trail (mile 10.4 on Skyline Drive) and a smaller example appears on the Limberlost Trail (mile 43). Deep burial underground once covered this rock, but tectonic plate collisions during the formation of Pangea pushed it up and shaped it into mountains.

You can still see the columns, but this rock no longer consists of basalt. Millions of years of heat and pressure buried the rock underground and transformed it into metabasalt, a type of metamorphic rock. Specifically, geologists call this metabasalt Catoctin Greenstone, which stretches as far north as Pennsylvania. Although basalt doesn't really exist here anymore, the columnar jointing reveals much about the geologic history of Shenandoah National Park.

Image: The underside of a large rock formation made of hexagonal green columns.

From out guest Tammy on June 5, 2026: This was the perfect location for a girl friend’s getaway. It checks all the boxes! Pristine clean, well furnished, quiet and private location, pet and smoke free. The host is extremely organized, professional and responds quickly. The beds are comfortable and the towels and bed linens are high quality. You can tell that a lot of thought went into the curating of all the features of this home. The view is spectacular! We identified 27 different bird species and watched deer at the edge of the woods. This will definitely warrant a return visit! Thank you for hosting us!

Another guest loved the cabin!

We had an excellent stay at Red Gate Cabin. The views from the porch are spectacular! It rained for most of the time that we were there so we were unable to do all of the hikes that we had planned in Shenandoah National Park. We were so thankful to have a comfy cabin to hang out in and watch the rain. We ended up just cooking meals and watching movies. The kitchen is well stocked and the cabin in general feels very homey.