 US 33 enters Virginia at about elevation at Dry River Gap on top of Shenandoah Mountain at the West Virginia state line, having climbed steeply from the community of Brandywine, West Virginia, in the valley of the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River.US 33 then heads east as Rawley Pike, with a curvaceous descent to the narrow but flat valley of the Dry River, which the highway follows east through the George Washington National Forest.East of Rawley Springs, the highway veers away from the river, leaves the national forest, and passes through a low, wide gap in Great North Mountain to enter the Shenandoah Valley.