The Blue Ridge Parkway is America’s most visited National Park unit and is known as “America’s favorite drive.” Its 469 miles connect the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

From there, it turns into Skyline Drive. The scenic parkway was designed for leisurely cruising to enjoy the natural wonders of the mountains. Begun in the mid-1930s, it was not completed until 1987.

Along the way, the Blue Ridge Parkway offers stunning views of the Blue Ridge mountains, forests, and pastoral landscapes, with abundant hiking trails, picnic areas, campgrounds, and interpretive signage.

The lead designer of the famous roadway, Stanley Abbott, was a landscape architect, not an engineer. Influenced by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park and the grounds of Biltmore Estate, Abbott dreamed of creating a park-like environment as well as a road. Today, the completed Blue Ridge Parkway is a remarkable testament to his vision and is enjoyed by millions of visitors each year. It is certainly the most famous of all North Carolina’s scenic drives.

The parkway is not maintained during the winter, so check for weather-related road closures before setting off on your drive. There’s no fee for using the parkway, and you won’t have to worry about competing with big trucks on this mountain road — commercial vehicles are banned. Speed limit is never higher than 45 miles per hour.

We began our Blue Ridge Parkway journey at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center at milepost 384 at 195 Hemphill Know Road Ashville, North Carolina. We worked our way the parkway covering 94 of the 469 miles to the end/beginning of the road at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

   

   

A natural disaster occurred here 500 to 1000 years ago. A tremendous “wind-blow” uprooted the spruce forest. Through the years the old root stumps and trees rotted, leaving only dirt mounds. These odd mounds gave the appearance of a graveyard, and the are became know as the Graveyard Fields.

Also located at the Graveyard Fields is the Graveyard Fields Loop Trail (2.3 mile loop) that leads to a bridge over the Yellowstone Prong of the Pigeon River through mountain laurel, rhododendron and open, grassy fields.

Two spurs lea to views 0f the upper and lower falls and are marked with signage.

I took the lower falls loop to the lower falls. where a series of stair cases leads you to the bottom of the lower falls.

   

At mile post 431.4 is the Richard Balsam Overlook and the highest peak of the Great Balsam Range which is also the Highest Elevation on the Blue Ridge Parkway Motor Road 6053 Feet.

We then worked out way through the Cherokee Indian Reservation to the Southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway,  mile post 469 and the entrance to The Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

*******************************************************************************************

This post contains affiliate links, so I make a small commission if you purchase through my links – that support helps to keep this blog running.

Copyright Foodie Made Simple, LLC. All text, recipes and photographs are copyrighted and may not be published elsewhere without express permission. Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Google+ and Facebook users, you are welcome to “pin” photos! re-tweet and “share” links all you like, just don’t copy the recipes themselves. Fellow bloggers are welcome to repost my recipes, just write the recipe in your own words, use your own photograph, then link back to the original recipe on rvcookingmadesimple.com