 Great North Mountain is oriented along a northeast-southwest axis from its southern terminus along the North Fork Shenandoah River in Rockingham County, Virginia to its northern terminus at U.S. Route 522 in Frederick County, Virginia.In the south, the initial of the ridge is known Church Mountain.For much of its length, the mountain forms the border between Virginia and West Virginia, in two separate stretches; starting north of its southern terminus at the border of Hardy County, West Virginia, Rockingham County, Virginia and Shenandoah County, Virginia, for with a break where the border shifts east to Paddy Mountain around Wilson Cove, followed by an additional stretch to the north.