If you are looking to take a road trip, consider the Blue Ridge Parkway - 469 peaceful miles from the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
The speed limit is 45 mph, with lots of places to pull off and enjoy the view. The road goes through many tunnels carved out of the mountains and at its highest point is 6047 feet in North Carolina.
We have traveled the entire length of the parkway twice including the additional 105 miles of the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah. We have also made several shorter trips on the Parkway over the years, up to Mt. Pisgah to camp or hike.
Along the way you will see places with interesting names such as Looking Glass Rock, Devils' Courthouse, Grandfather Mountain, Peaks of Otter, and Fryingpan Tunnel.
Travel on the parkway is not only a scenic drive - with mountain vistas, wildlife, wildflowers, trees - but it is something to be experienced. Definitely the journey, not the destination.
When riding through the pristine forests and mountains, several things are missing, but you don't realize it until you leave the parkway - signs, billboards, trucks, signs of civilization, commercialism. When leaving you feel like you have been in another world.
If you do plan to do this road trip, do not rush it, take enough time to enjoy all it has to offer.
The entire 469 miles of this great scenic highway is a National Park.
I was reminded of our trips there when I recently saw the exquisite photos of the parkway taken by photographer and blogger Fred First in Virginia.
~photo above of Looking Glass Rock found on Wikipedia
