The beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. A panoramic series of shots stitched together.
Before jumping onto the Blue Ridge Parkway we filled the RV up with gas. While I was doing that, Becky went into a little restaurant for coffee and donut holes. Highly recommend Mable’s Kitchen for breakfast. They don’t have donut holes on a shelf, you order them and they put them in the fryer. They are hot, fresh, and delicious.
Just getting started on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). This sign at the Cherokee entrance.
Didn’t get very far and had to pull over on one of the many overlook parking areas. Very little traffic and plenty of space. We only went 84 miles but it took us all day because we stopped at so many of the overlooks.
It being May 1st we were not expecting “fall colors,” but the “spring colors” were great!
Rhododendron were not flowering; but the Dogwoods were.
We (and the RV) made it to the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway at 6,053′.
It was a cool spring morning when we left Cherokee. The rocks along the parkway had little waterfalls of melting water. Up here the rocks were covered with sheets of ice and icicles. We didn’t see it snow but people at the Pisgah Inn where we had lunch said it snowed the night before.
Panorama from “Bunches Bald” overlook.
The photo on the left is from “Waterrock Knob” Visitors Center when Becky and I visited 10 years ago in September 2013. Our plan then was to visit Smoky Mountain NP and drive the Blue Ridge Parkway… but, because of the fog, we got this far and decided to just come down out of the mountains and drive east to visit Kitty Hawk. The weather in 2023 was wonderful. The photo on the right is from the same place (Waterrock Knob Visitors Center) but looking a bit to the ‘left’ of the 2013 photo.
Waterrock Knob looking to the right.
Panoramic view from the observation deck at Pisgah Inn.
There is a nice restaurant at Pisgah Inn. We enjoyed lunch and the beautiful view out the big restaurant windows. Someone offered to take our pic. If we look a little frazzled there is a reason. The parkway is a two lane road with no curbs on the edge and almost no guardrails. It was really windy. As we rounded a bend there was a tree fallen across both lanes and well beyond. The tree had just fallen and a few cars were driving down a grassy ditch, out around the tree, and back down and up to the road through the ditch on the other side. There was no place to turn an RV around and cars were starting to stack up on both sides of the fallen tree. Not knowing if we would sink into the grass or bottom-out in the ditch we went for it. Rolling back and forth like a drunken sailor we made it around. Praise the Lord. That was not the Blue Ridge Parkway experience we expected… We will be getting a dash camera so we have proof next time we go off-roading in a 12,500lb RV.
Last panorama from the BRP on our first day. So grateful that the generations before us decided it would be a good idea to use taxpayer dollars to build a parkway through the mountains and to protect a large portion of the mountains from development so we can all enjoy these views.
We stayed at the Asheville East KOA for the night then visited the Ashville BRP Visitors Center and the Folk Art Center the next day.
Quote on the wall entering the Visitors Center. Vision Statement for the Parkway.
Entry to Asheville Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center
Interior of the Ashville Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center.
Examples of wood work done with Chestnut Tree wood. Most chestnut trees were wiped out by blight.
The green line is the BRP. The small portion we drove on May 1st is from Cherokee (at bottom right) to Ashville (basically where it says Folk Art Center a little left of center on the map).
The entire 469 mile long Blue Ridge Parkway from Shenandoah National Park to Smoky Mountain National Park. We drove a little over 1/2 of the length in 3 days of about 90 miles a day.
Couldn’t resist a pic of this pic. Not sure if the guy in boots and stubby tie is an Engineer or a Landscape Architect. Whoever he is it looks like he’s trying to impress the photographer. I am impressed by the stone masons building the nearly flat arch in the background!
Another pic of a pic. We will be driving on this Linn Cove Viaduct tomorrow (but without the fall colors or the helicopter view).
This orange flowering azalea is the only photo I have from the Folk Art Center. No photography is allowed. There were so many things I wanted to take photos of to remember! Alas, they would prefer we purchase them but that would require winning the lottery.
The Folk Art Center is incredible. It is home to the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The woodworking, quilting, textiles, carving, wheat weaving, pottery, etc., etc. is mind-blowing, beautiful, best-of-the-best stuff. This is a “must visit” place. I was thinking that visiting Biltmore was the most impressive thing to do in Asheville. The Folk Art Center may top that.
DADart Photography 