Blue Ridge Parkway

September 13, 2012

We left Creekwood Farm RV Park and headed south on highway 276, the west on highway 19 to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Blue Ridge Parkway starts at mile marker #1 in Virginia's Rockfish Gap at the southern terminus of Shenandoah National Park's skyline Drive.  It ends at mile marker #469.1 Oconaluftee in Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  Construction started on the parkway in 1935, and is a two lane winding road through the mountains, often in elevation over 5-6000 feet.  There are 26 tunnels, all but one in North Carolina.  Some of the tunnels have low clearance issues and tall RVs like ours would have to drive through the center of the tunnel and hope no one is coming the opposite direction.  So, we left the RV at the campground and made our drive in our car.

We entered the Parkway near mile marker 451 and were heading towards Virginia.  We stop at this overlook and took this picture.

I wanted to get that sign in the picture to help us remember the name of this overlook.  But, I didn't realize I was standing in front of the sign and now we can't remember the name of this overlook.  A senior moment I guess!

 

Here's some shots of the road from another overlook.

 

 

 

We drove a little farther and decided to stop and have lunch.  We stopped at The Orchards Overlook at 3810 feet elevation.  I know that because I included the sign and nobody standing in front of the sign this time!

 

Here's some more shots from this overlook.

 

 

 

 

There is no advertising signs on the Parkway, which makes the trip even more beautiful.  But, you need to have a booklet that tells what's at each exit so you know where to stop for shopping, food, or gas.  The Parkway is always going up or down hill and some of the grades are steep with sharp curves.  The max speed is 45 MPH. 

 

While we were driving, Kitty kept saying "what if our breaks fail", or :what if we slide off the road.  They would never find us!"  The farther we drove the whiter her knuckles got.  So after only going about ten miles, we took an exit and headed back to the campground and some reasonably flat roads.  She is never going to be a mountain girl.  But, after seeing some of these mountain girls, maybe that's a good thing.  Ha!