Who says only kiddos get to go to camp? At Massanutten Resort in Virginia, even the adults get to get in touch with their inner child (and inner wine connoisseur). Since Virginia is for Lovers, travel writer Betsa Marsh tells us why it’s so easy to love this year-round resort. Any

Massanutten Resort, Virginia: Reveling in a posh camp at any age

With a sudden whoosh, flames engulf marshmallows and only a quick snap saves them from cremation. Then it’s a flick of the skewer to plop them atop a chocolate slab and sandwich it all in with a hefty, homemade graham cracker. The vast S’more I’ve created around my tabletop campfire says that summer isn’t going anywhere.

Where better to stretch the season than Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where temperatures linger in the 80s during September and lollygag in the 70s nearly to November. The balminess lures diners in the Campfire Grill at Massanutten Resort  out to the deck. They might have chosen cornbread-crusted trout, barbecue pork or pizza for their dinners, but dessert is almost always S’mores.

Megan Skillman, Food and Beverage Manager, tempts diners on the deck of Campfire Grill with designer pizzas. Photo by Betsa Marsh.

Maybe it’s because Massanutten feels so much like a luxe camp that kids and even adults long past their bunkbed phase fall easily into the rhythm of busy, sun-burnished days, followed by comfort food and campfire rituals. We might even have sung camp songs if the band Gypsy Town weren’t so great wailing Bonnie Raitt and Jefferson Airplane.

And because Campfire Grill juts its deck over the golf course, there’s another floor show most twilights: a parade of resident deer and groundhogs crossing the fairway.

“People ask when I let the animals out,” marvels Judith Sonifrank, general manager of Campfire Grill. “I tell them ‘They’re pretty much wild.’”

At other times, deck watchers can catch bald eagles, fox, and black and brown bears wandering out of the woods. Massanutten ranges over more than 6,000 acres of the Shenandoah Valley, and the animals have been here much longer than the golfers, bikers and skiers swooping in to play throughout the seasons.

The valley is rimmed by the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Alleghenies to the west. The road from Charlottesville, about 45 minutes away, slices through Shenandoah National Park on its way to the resort.

At Massanutten, it’s easy to fall through that escape hatch back to childhood camp. I liked to bike in the morning, then cool off at the vast indoor/outdoor waterpark–I never had a private cabana at camp.

For dinner, it’s Base Camp. This restaurant at the foot of the ski lift reminds me this is the state’s highest vertical drop, 1,100 feet. Massanutten will never rival the Rockies, but these gentler slopes are kind to beginners.

“At certain times of the year, you can golf in the morning, ski in the afternoon and waterpark at night,” said Jeff Reid, director of hospitality operations. “The only other place I know where you can do that is Dubai.”

At Base Camp, Executive Chef Michael Ritenour pulls from all the resort restaurants to surprise his guests. The crew at Massanutten’s Virginia BBQ and Company smokes everything it can get its hands on, so the wacky Smoked Pineapple Jalapeño Margarita comes with a festive wedge of smoked pineapple and a rim kissed by house-smoked salt.

Derek Lamb arrives with Smoked Pineapple Jalapeno Margaritas at Base Camp restaurant. Photo by Betsa Marsh.

Or, maybe a Black Raspberry Lemonade, spiked with Strange Monkey gin from a local distiller. Ritenour pairs the cocktail with a Mountain PuPu Platter, a spectacle of egg rolls stuffed with shrimp and house-smoked tasso, an overflowing mason jar of bacon kicked up with bourbon and brown sugar, and spicy chicken salad tucked into tiny heirloom tomatoes. Just as we cry “Uncle,” another mason jar materializes, an astonishingly creamy crème brûlée enrobing moonshine cherries. Oh, well, maybe just a quick dip in to find a cherry or two.

At Base Camp restaurant, Chef Michael Ritenour creates a lavish Mountain PuPu Platter that includes egg rolls stuffed with shrimp and house-smoked tasso, and an overflowing mason jar of bacon kicked up with bourbon and brown sugar. Photo by Betsa Marsh.

Food coma or not, today’s the day to leave Massanutten for a bit of exploration. I head into little Elkton, to check out fine handcrafts in Barb Polin’s SoLace Studios. She’s mastered the elusive art of marbling leather, and her feathered clutches seem ethereal enough to fly off the shelves.

Other Shenandoah locals have turned their hands to brewing, distilling and viticulture. Once called “The Breadbasket of the Confederacy,” Shenandoah Valley still has the highest agricultural production in Virginia.

Plowing a different furrow, Julie Haushalter nurtures a landscape of serenity and peace at White Oak Lavender Farm.  Her land saw the bitter Civil War battle of Cross Keys in 1862. “Putting lavender back into ground that has been war-torn is a good thing. The mission at the farm is teaching people about anxiety and how to lessen it in their lives.”

Julie Haushalter wanders through her crops at White Oak Lavender Farm in Cross Keys, Va. Photo by Betsa Marsh.

It’s hard to miss the joy of White Oak after sweet-talking the miniature horses, cooing at the bunnies in the “Rabbitat,” and swooning to the heavenly scent of the drying shed. Thousands of lavender bundles line the walls and bestow their perfume on anyone who will pause and breathe.

And who can resist a tiny cup of blueberry lavender ice cream, or, as a nod to fall on its way, a cup of lavender-mulled cider?

Becca Miller pours Imperial Gem Chardonnay at White Oak Lavender Farm (WOLF), a wine blended with lavender in a secret process that reduces acidity. Photo by Betsa Marsh.

A nonstop inventor, Haushalter has combined her lavender fascination with her daughter Becca’s love of wine. In a secret process, Julie blends more than 30 types of culinary lavender with their cellar of reds and whites. The magic lowers the wines’ acidity, creating a subtle yet remarkable transformation in the finish.

After sampling lavender wine, ice cream and cider, Massanutten beckons. But there’s still time to walk the White Oak labyrinth, the last moment of calm and meditation before returning for lights out at my flashback camp, Massanutten Resort. — Story and photos by Betsa Marsh.

WHEN YOU GO

Massanutten is a four-season resort, with skiing, golf, biking and an indoor-outdoor waterpark over 6,000 acres.

Massanutten is in Rockingham County, Virginia.

Hungry for more? Find out where to eat in nearby Roanoke, Virginia. And, see why this Virginia distillery was included in our roundup of 6 Distinctive Distilleries around the country.