Before our adventure started I had assumed (and assumed wrong I might add) that a National Park was just that, a park. I had been to quite a few growing up and each one fit into this example, – Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone – you get the idea. What this trip has taught us is that the National Parks Service doesn’t just care for something that you would traditionally think of as a park. Of the 418 units (as the parks service calls them) only 60 are what you would think of as a traditional park. The other 358 cover everything from Battlefields, Rivers, Seashores, Lakeshores, Trails and Monuments (which can be as small as the African Burial Ground in New York City at 0.35 of an acre or as big as Admiralty Island in Alaska at over 1 million acres). Blue Ridge Parkway is classified as what else, a parkway.
Julie and I had first seen the parkway classification for a park while in Mississippi when we came across the Natchez-Trace parkway, which ran from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN. We didn’t drive too long on it as it wasn’t going from anywhere to anywhere where we were currently going but as the Blue Ridge was going in the right direction we decided to take it. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs from near Cherokee, NC in the south to Afton, VA in the north. The parkway is 469 miles long with a speed limit of 45 mph. As it doesn’t connect any towns together as a normal road does its lightly traveled and only has access points every 10-30 miles. It’s generally referred to as “America’s Favorite Drive”. Julie and I started our Blue Ridge Parkway drive just outside of Asheville, NC, which meant that we had roughly 400 miles of scenic driving ahead of us.
We started our trip at a visitors center getting a few pamphlets of what we would encounter on the drive as well as where campgrounds were (which is good to have as cell service turned out to be quite spotty) located. There was also a museum about the natural and man-made history of the area. From there we were really ready to start our journey. Our drive near Asheville was the most mountainous of the road that we would encounter. The first 30 miles or so were stunning with overlooks that let you see for hundreds of miles in some cases.
While there aren’t many towns along the road one of the first that we came to was the small town of Little Switzerland, NC. The town was originally built in the early 1900’s as a small resort village but now runs as any normal town does. What it lacks in size it more than enough makes up in views. We parked Bubbles and walked around the small town for a bit stopping by some of its stores and checking out its main lodge. The views from its dining room and back lawn are why people come here for a few days to relax. They were simply stunning.
From Little Switzerland we continued north up the Parkway until we spotted an orchard and what looked like a small market. We decided to stop and found out that this was the “Historic Orchard at Altapass”. Walking in we must have looked like outsiders as an older fellow came up to us and asked if it was our first time at the Orchard. We told him yes and he responded that we had just missed dancing and fiddle playing. He then went on to tell us that his name was Bill and he owned the property with his sister and they had saved it from development 20 years prior and that the property had been there since before the civil war. After speaking to him for 20 minutes or so we thanked him for all his information before perusing the store packed with apple goods. We then hopped back into Bubbles and continued on our way finding a campsite and calling it a night.
The next day we woke up ready for another slow driving day on the parkway. As there seemed to be an overlook pull off every mile we didn’t stop at each one this time but we did stop at a lot of them. The view changed so much from mile to mile as the parkway was for the most part on the crest of the mountain chain giving you amazing views from each side. At one of the stops we got to talking with a couple who were both marriage counselors. To hear from them that they were not sure that they could live in in a space the size of Bubbles (the living space is roughly a 10’x5’) was pretty neat to hear. We then headed up the parkway stopping at one last stop in North Carolina in a town called Sparta for gas. We also picked up our last few bottles of Cheerwine. If you have never heard of Cheerwine it’s a regional cherry flavored soda from North Carolina. You’re sometimes able to find it in surrounding states or in the occasional candy/soda touristy store but if you’ve never seen it and like cherry Coke then you would love Cheerwine. From Sparta we hopped back on the parkway headed north and crossed into Virginia. Shortly after we came across a working mill where wheat and corn are still ground to make fresh bread and grits. We stopped to buy some grits (if anyone reading this has a good grits recipe please let us know as we have yet to make them) then back onto the parkway and found a campground for the night.
We woke up the next day excited to go again. It was our last day on the parkway and we were ready to see some more amazing views. We drove along stopping every now and then taking in the views before getting off the parkway to check out the town of Roanoke, VA. Roanoke is located in the southwestern park of VA near Blacksburg. We generally do not look up things in towns, just stop, walk around and see what’s good. As it was a Saturday we got a bit lucky. Every Saturday Roanoke holds its weekly downtown farmers market and even luckier for us there was a free classic car show going on at the same time. Jackpot! We walked around the farmers market buying some fresh produce before taking it back to the van. We then spent a few hours walking around checking out all of the great cars and talking with their owners. Most of the people were not making any money from this show, it’s just something that they loved to do. As it was getting a bit late for lunch and since we were in a city we decided to go out for lunch and ended up going to Thai Continental Cuisine. We thought it was great and would recommend it to anyone in Roanoke or for those needing a pit stop from driving the parkway.
After lunch we headed north on the parkway reaching the end just before 4pm. Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway was a much different park experience than we had encountered until this point. Instead of the possible crowds on a hiking trail for the most part in a popular national park we were by ourselves on the road. We passed endless farms, through mature eastern forest and saw spectacular views. After traveling almost the entirety of the Blue Ridge Parkway we both agreed that this was truly “America’s Favorite Drive” and one of our favorite “parks” experiences.
Next up…We explore Shenandoah National Park and the town of Charlottesville, VA.
