Smokin’ in the Smokys

Hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway

One of the most unusual ‘National Parks’ is the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a 469 mile road connecting the North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. All along the way are amazing views, gorgeous plants and wildlife and wonderful towns to explore. The parkway has been carefully sculpted to exclude most traces of modern development. You can get a sense of what the Appalachians were like in the preceding centuries discounting the asphalt surfaces.

You’d think it would be easy to find a road as famous at the Blue Ridge Parkway, and usually it is. However, it twists, turns and seemingly vanishes