During intermission, check out the visitor center’s exhibit Roots of American Music, or take a hike on the 1.35-mile High Meadow Trail or the 2.25-mile Fisher Peak Loop, which both start here.īlowing Rock : A site so spectacular it got an entire town in North Carolina named after it, Blowing Rock at milepost 290 is a Lion King –like ledge hanging more than 4,000 feet above John’s River Gorge.
Tickets are required for evening performances, held Memorial Day to Labor Day, but daily Midday Mountain Music shows are free. The pondside mill and blacksmith shop built in 1908 by Ed and Lizzy Mabry, just steps from the parkway at milepost 176, is the setting for popular mountain music performances a neighboring restaurant serves down-home food and-appropriate to the setting-is known for its cornmeal pancakes.īlue Ridge Music Center : Bluegrass and rootsy Americana bands take the stage at this open-air music venue close to the Virginia–North Carolina border at milepost 213. Mabry Mill : Being old and quaint may make Mabry Mill the most photographed (and Instagrammed) place on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it’s also an important reminder that people lived and worked in these mountains long before the tourists arrived. Nine park visitor centers are situated along the course of the parkway, so you don’t usually have to drive more than an hour or so before you can stop to get information from park rangers and staff. I-81 also runs parallel to the Blue Ridge Parkway for much of its length, with connections to numerous park access points. Route 221 near Blowing Rock, North Carolina and I-40 and I-26 near Asheville. Route 220 in Roanoke I-77 near Fancy Gap, Virginia U.S. There are literally hundreds of roads that intersect the parkway, including Interstate 64 (the north terminus) I-584/U.S. The park passes through two major cities, Roanoke, Virginia, and Asheville, North Carolina, which are popular intermediate starting points for visitors. Driving the length of the parkway in either direction is often planned as a weeklong adventure, but it’s also relatively easy to experience it in segments if you have only a few days, or if your patience for driving on winding mountain roads is limited.
The Blue Ridge Parkway can be a destination all its own or a critical link in a vacation that also takes in Shenandoah National Park and/or Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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