campgrounds, cabins, bed and breakfasts, hotels and motels, restaurants,
visitor centers, parking areas, parks, wineries, hiking trails, waterfalls,
mountains, lakes, and rivers.”
The main Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center (MP 384)
near the city of Asheville helped us group our visits into five day-itineraries, presented here chronologically. We based ourselves at the Green Mountain RV Park in Lenoir, North Carolina before moving to the Virginia section of the parkway.
Day 1: Blowing Rock
About 30 minutes from our campground, Blowing Rock (MP 219.9 and population 1,500 which balloons to 10,000 during summer), “takes
its name from an unusual rock formation that juts over 1,500 feet above the Johns
River Gorge. Wind currents from the gorge often blow vertically, causing light
objects to float upward into the sky.” The town is also host to The Tweetsie Railroad Theme
Park built around the only remaining fully functional steam engine train in North
Carolina. It takes you three miles into the beautiful Appalachian mountain scenery, gorgeous in fall.
Day 2: Grandfather Mountain
And Linn Cove Viaduct
Grandfather Mountain (MP 307.4), is a UN International
Biosphere Reserve because of seven protected environmental habitats for black bears,
river otters, cougar, bald eagles, golden eagle, and white-tailed deer. At Linnville Peak, there is a 228-foot Mile-High Swinging Bridge that spans an 80-foot chasm a mile high, offering a 360-degree view of
the Appalachians. When you visit the Linn Cove Visitors’ Center (MP 304), you’ll view the lovely Linn Cove Viaduct (MP 304.4), the 1,243-foot concrete segmental snaking bridge around Grandfather Mountain.
Day 3: Asheville To
Linville Falls
This is the day we headed to Asheville to take a peek at the Biltmore castle. Then we visited the Folk Art Center (MP
382) to see quality craft products from North Carolina.
“It would
have been spectacular had the Catawba rhododendrons been in full bloom, but
they were just starting when we went to our next stop: Craggy Gardens at MP
364.6. Here, the parkway is literally lined with walls of the plants that are
sometimes as tall as trees. The pinkish-purple blooms are at their peak
everywhere from late June to early August. So, aside from fall, this is another good
time to visit the Parkway.”
At 6,700 feet, Mt. Mitchell (MP349) is the
highest peak on the East Coast. We loved the panoramic views from the Observatory Tower and the great hot chili dogs from the diner at the top. Then we hurried to Linville Falls (MP 316.4), to see the waters cascading down the 2,000-foot Linville Peak.
Day 4: Meadows Of Dan
To Roanoke, Virginia
We left our base and, just after the Nojrth Carolina border, we reached the the Blue Ridge Music Center (MP
213). “But it was Puckett Cabin (MP 190)
that held our interest longer. Orelena Puckett was a famous midwife in the late
1800s. Legend has it that, traveling miles on foot when called, she assisted in
giving birth to about a thousand babies in 50 years — she lived to be 102 — and
was paid about a dollar for each childbirth. It was sad, however, that none of
her 24 children survived beyond infancy.”
And then we got to the most photographed scene along the Blue Ridge
Parkway, Mabry Mill (MP 176.1) that depicts how subsistence farmers lived and managed water.
We spent the night in the charming mountain city of Roanoke (MP 120.4), population, 300,000. Shining from atop
the mountains, the Mill Mountain Star, the world’s largest
freestanding illuminated man-made star, stands 88.5 feet tall with 2,000 feet of neon tubing powered by 17,500
watts. It turns red
whenever there is a traffic fatality.
Day 5: Beyond Roanoke
And Toward The Northern Terminus
A short drive from Roanoke was Peaks of Otter (MP 86): Sharp Top, Flat Top, and Harkening
Hill. We did not hike up any because it would have taken around three hours so we just took lovely pictures from the lodge. Then we drove to Poplar Forest, the summer home of Thomas Jefferson, just a short
drive from the peaks.
Our next
stop was the Natural Bridge near Glasgow, 15 miles from MP 61.4. Cedar Rapids has been continuing to carve it out for the last 500 million years. Look for the letters GW that are inscribed on
the rocks about 23 feet from the stream’s surface in the middle below the
bridge (said to have been done by George Washington). 1,600 year-old trees are in the process of
being petrified all around the grounds. Just don’t pay the price for the toy museum and wax factory!
We missed the open hours of the
Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington (MP 46) but we visited the Virginia Military Institute, just a few miles away, dubbed the West
Point of the South.
Then we drove the parkway toward its southern terminus at MP 469. This section
had so many tunnels, coming one after another and sometimes even back to back.
It was an amazingly scenic drive that inspired our next adventure at the nearby Great
Smoky Mountain National Park.
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