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Blue Ridge Parkway

jerry and tina

jerry and tina

Novice
Has anyone traveled this path? If so, looking for points of interest or those must see things that are not in the travel brochures.

tina & jerry
 
A beautiful drive! We drove the northern end of the park in 2012 along with Shenandoah NP. Went as far south as the James River. Camped at Sherando Lake Recreation Area. A bit of a drive off the parkway but a great campground. Arrived after dark and were greeted by a friendly camp host who directed us to some trailer friendly sites. They came around later to collect our fees so we wouldn't have to drive all the way back to the entrance to register. Woke up in the morning to find a well kept park with a lake and walking trails. A lot of the adventure at the Blue Ridge Parkway besides the trails and grand vistas is visiting the surrounding small towns. We spent our time going to Civil War battlefields on the eastern side of the park.

Jim
 
Dear jsl,

I've been meaning to answer you in some detail but haven't gotten around to it. I live in NC in the very NW corner. 2 miles from TN and 5 miles from VA. We are very near the BRP as well as the Appalachian Trail, Mount Rogers, Boone, Grandfather Mountain, etc. I'm sort of familiar with a lot of the Parkway especially the parts around here.

A great multi-day trip would be to do the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah Valley area (our least visited National Park), then hook up to the BRP and continue all the way to the Smokies (our most crowded National Park).

What do guys like to do? Hike? Fish? Canoe? Bike? Collect waterfalls? Drink copiously? Rough camping or do you need hookups?

When? Remember these mountains can be interesting weather-wise. Night before last we hit minus 14 (with 55 mph gusts). Winter can last into May some years. Spring is nice. Summer is awesome. Fall is a religious experience. For us Oct 1-14 is usually peak leaf season.

We have a 120 acre farm and you are certainly welcome to stop here and camp in the driveway or up in the upper meadow. It's almost undoubtedly more beautiful and secluded than any campground you will visit.

In fact, for anybody reading this, we are interested in finding anybody that would be interested in house/pet sitting for us. We'd love to be able to take off for a month or more, but it's been tough to find folks to stay here. We're not in a position to really pay more than expenses, but this could be a great place to base camp from for all the activities listed above and much more.

O.K. When I s aid "anybody", I'm obviously looking for somebody responsible and mature. That leaves you out Frank.
 
AsheWolf - thanks for the suggestions. We are planning on being out in the area in August. Just trying to plan where we want to be and when. There is so much to see and do in two week span. We will be starting with Jim & Jamie's gathering and still pinning down the rest of the agenda.

We camped the in the Smokies for our honeymoon, we'll say a "few" years ago, and just revisited them a couple years back.

Tina & Jerry
 
I can remember when Silver Dollar City became Dollywood in Sevierville, Tennessee. I personally would avoid Gatlinburg/Cades Cove (too crowded) if I were visiting the Great Smokies. A great Camp Inn forum resource for the trail would be Joe in KY as his wife and her friend do a whole lot of hiking in the area.
We sure would like to meet up with you, AsheWolf, one day!!!
 
We agree with you on avoiding Gatlinburg/Cades Cove. We went back last time to revisit Cades Cove and gosh, Didn't remember it being so over crowded. When we were there the first time, it was like we were the only people around.
 
http://www.explorelansingnc.com/index.html

This link is in reference on what to do around the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is about the small but booming town of Lansing. The reference to Pond Mountain is interesting. The main part of Pond Mountain was just protected with a perpetual easement as is my farm. I'm also in the Pond Mountain Township. The picture on this link is actually looking S from Pond Mtn. My farm is hidden behind the big mountain in the foreground.

Some of the links: to Virginia Creeper bike trail, a bike trail that is the old railed of a narrow gauge railway. It goes over some cool trellises and stuff. You can rent bikes in Damascus and they shuttle you to the top. From there it is literally all downhill.

Also Mount Rogers, Grayson Highlands (hike with wild ponies) are featured.
 
I've been told there are part of the parkway where trailers of any size are forbidden? Was I misinformed? I know dragging a fish wheel is a bad idea, but thought a teardrop would be just fine.....my tow vehicle and ultra 560 have a footprint smaller than some pickups :)
 
To my knowledge there aren't any restrictions on RVs or camping trailers. "Commercial" vehicles are prohibited. I got pulled over on the Parkway once driving my "commercial" F250 farm truck because I had "farm tags" on it.

Here's a link to the campgrounds that are actually on the parkway and you can see they accommodate trailers and RVs. Remember that this is in the mountains and we can see snow into May, hence parts of the Parkway are only open from May through October.

http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/v.php?pg=19
 
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Thanks for the links and ideas. Gives us more to look at and realize there isn't enough time in two weeks to do everything
:( darn, if only we were retired...
 
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