12 of 13 Jekyll Island Trip Series.

We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway on two beautiful sunny days, May 3 from Asheville to Boone, NC and May 4 from Boone to Fancy Gap, Virginia.

Windy Video.

Trivia: This is not the Blue Ridge Parkway (and not my photo), but it must be noted (for history’s sake) that for 5 seconds in the Forrest Gump movie he is running around this curve of Grandfather Mountain.

I know it’s nerdy but I thought it was interesting that the entire viaduct “balances” on the point of cones on the seven piers.

Here’s a link to more info on the Linn Cove Viaduct from NPS: https://www.nps.gov/blri/learn/historyculture/linn-cove-viaduct.htm#:~:text=The%20viaduct%20was%20constructed%20from,heavy%20equipment%20on%20the%20ground.

A Trio of Trilliums from our hike on Cascades Trail.

Mountain Laurel has interesting stringy bark.

Thoughts on the Blue Ridge Parkway;

It’s a wonderful experience to drive for three days and never see a billboard, never see power poles and power lines, never see a semi-truck, never see a McDonald’s or any other of the ubiquitous stores that are seen at every intersection of an interstate. Each evening, when we got off the Parkway to camp, it was with a sense of loss, not comfort, to again encounter traffic, and traffic lights, and the cacophony of development stimulus we have become acclimated to.

The three driving days on the Parkway were similar in many ways but different in a few:
1. From Cherokee to Asheville, the scenery was very wooded and mountainous with lots of tunnels through the mountains and lots of steep uphill’s and downhills. Very few intersecting access roads and an awareness that there is nothing as far as the eye can see.
2. From Asheville to Boone, the scenery was less wooded, less tunnels, and a bit more gentle grades. More access roads and seeing towns and a few houses off in the mountains.
3. From Boone to Fancy Gap, the scenery is pastoral, with some open fields and gentle rolling pastures. Cattle and horses and passing some farms and towns within sight of the Parkway. I don’t remember any tunnels. Much more populated areas but still quite a secluded drive. They were beginning to start paving work on parts of this section. We encountered a closed portion and a long detour. After the detour and returning to the Parkway we waited for another section of single lane. By then it was getting late so we jumped off and took highways to Fancy Gap.
4. We enjoyed driving on the Parkway because there was almost no other traffic. We could look around, stop at any of the overlooks, and seldom saw other cars. The tunnels were not a problem. The only thing we needed to watch out for was overhanging branches but with no oncoming traffic it was easy to move over to miss them. I am sure it is a beautiful drive in the fall but I would not want to crawl along with lots of leaf peepers.

The entire BRP is 469 miles long. We drove 84 miles, from 469 at the southern end to 384 at the Asheville Visitors Center on the first day. 93 miles from 384 to Boone at 291 on the second day, and (most of) 92 miles from Boone to 199 at Fancy Gap on the third day. So we traveled (mostly) 270 miles on the Parkway (57% of the whole). Hopefully, someday, we can travel the northern end to Shenandoah National Park.

Tomorrow we leave the Blue Ridge Parkway and head north to West Virginia, New River Gorge National Park, and Babcock State Park.