North Carolina – Blue Ridge Parkway Part 1

The 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway extends along the crest of the southern Appalachians linking Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The mountainous road has scenic overlooks, hairpin turns, tunnels, hiking trails, a 45-mph speed limit, and no commercial vehicles. The National Park service manages the parkway and has campgrounds and visitor centers along the way. We’ve traveled parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but thought we’d try to cover the entire route. We’re chronicling our time along the Blue Ridge referring to mile markers (mm).

Section 1 – mm 469-443

The forecast was for rain, so we drove up to the first Blue Ridge Parkway visitor center (mm 451) to get information about hiking, camping and driving. The threatening skies created an interesting backdrop at the overlooks.

The first visitor center is at Waterrock Knob, the second highest point along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove up, up, up to get there. By the time we got there it started to rain, but we were glad we made the trip as the scenery was still spectacular and we got good info from the ranger.

We continued on to the next access point and then headed back to our campsite via town roads. We stopped at the little town of Sylva. Barbara wanted to stop in a particular shop for a letterbox, but it was closed on Mondays. We did spend some time in the library to use their internet. What a cool library! It’s a modern library in an old town building that sits on a hill overlooking the town.

Late in the day the skies cleared, so we decided to drive back up to Waterrock Knob.

We hiked the steep .6 mile trail to the top of the knob where we took in the 4-state view.

Then we headed back down to find a good overlook for the sunset.

Campground: Smokemont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Blue Ridge Parkway miles traveled: 26 miles today