Blue Ridge Country May/June 2022 - BRPG4

469.1 Miles,
Marked and Ready
The Blue Ridge Parkway's northern
end is at Milepost 0, on the crest of
Virginia's Afton Mountain, accessible
from I-81. The roadway's southern
end, at Milepost 469.1 is at Cherokee,
North Carolina, from U.S. 441. Stone
posts mark each mile (MP).
MAP FOR ALL
469 MILES
BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY
469 Scenic Pastoral Miles
This unique and linear American treasure came to be in the 1930s, when the combined
forces of the Great Depression and vision for public spaces came together to compose a
new landscape through the mountains.
6 Great
ITINERARIES
SMALL TOWNS AND PARKWAY WONDERS
SERVICES DIRECTORY
On the Cover
We're near the Thunder Hill Overlook
on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost
290.4 in North Carolina, as the road
heads away from that overlook toward
the north. Photography by
Nicholas Moore.
LEISURE MEDIA 360
FOUNDER & CEO
Richard Wells
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
(BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY)
Cynthia Bruggeman
VP OF CLIENT SERVICES
Denise Koff
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Kurt Rheinheimer
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR
Janette Spencer
ART DIRECTOR
Matt Ayers
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
Patty Jackson
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Su Clauson-Wicker, Casey
Higgins, Marla Hardee Milling
ADVERTISING
COORDINATOR
Annette Stamus
LEISURE
MEDIA
36
Published in the United States by Leisure Media
360, 3424 Brambleton Avenue, PO Box 21535,
Roanoke, VA 24018. Copyright 2022. All rights
reserved. Every fact has been checked in order to
ensure that this book is as up to date as possible
at press time. Details are subject to change, so
please check ahead. The publisher accepts no
responsibility for any consequences arising from
the use of this book. We welcome suggestions
from readers. Please write to: BRPTG Editor, Leisure
Media 360, 3424 Brambleton Ave., P.O. Box
21535, Roanoke, VA 24018.
JOSHUA MOORE
For Parkway closures (weather/maintenance): nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm
The 469-mile roadway, begun in the 1930s as part of a Depressionera
work project, exists today as America's Favorite Scenic
Highway, featuring not just a roadway, but also visitor centers,
hiking trails, lodging, interpretive programs and much more.
ack in the 1930s, two
new national parks-
Shenan doah National
Park in Virginia and Great
Smoky Mountains National
Park in North Carolina and
Tennessee-needed a road
to link them. And workers
idled by the Great Depression
provided large numbers of
unemployed workers along
with a pool of temporarily
idled engineers and
landscape architects.
Enter young Stanley
Abbott, the nascent
roadway's first resident
landscape architect. His
task: Transforming two
states' worth of hodgeB
podge
mountain land into
the nation's most famous
rural national parkway.
His vision led to not only a
469-mile parkway but also
visitor centers, hiking trails,
lodges, campgrounds and
interpretive programs.
Construction of the Blue
Ridge Parkway began on
September 11, 1935. One
by one the road sections
and parks were completed
over the decades, until only
one unit-the route around
Grandfather Mountain in
North Carolina-remained
unfinished.
In 1987, when the Linn
Cove Viaduct was dedicated,
the 469 miles were at last
rendered into a beautiful
linear park through the
Southern Appalachians.
Today the parkway
welcomes about 15 million
people each year. As a drive
through largely rural territory,
the roadway offers perhaps
its most spectacular visits in
the spring and fall.
Yes, the hoarfrosts of highelevation
winter and the vast
blue-green forest views of
summertime are true delights,
but the parkway's wildflowers
offer their color and expanse
most gloriously in springtime.
And the parkway's color
explodes in fall as dogwood,
sourwood and blackgum take
on their glow; tulip poplars
and hickories turn bright
yellow, sassafras turns orange
and red maples offer a multicolor
brilliance.
MP 418.7 | BREVARD, NC
4 BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY
GUIDE
GUIDE
http://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2022

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