Blue Ridge Parkway 751935 · 1987 · milepost 304

A site about the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway: where the road runs, how it was built, and the rules that keep it looking like this.

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Section 1 / High Ground

Why the road is where it is

Ridge routing, gaps, and the view it was drawn for.

Layered blue ridges stretch to the horizon beyond forested slopes with autumn foliage

A road drawn along the topThe Parkway follows ridge crests rather than valleys, which is a scenic decision that cost far more in construction than a valley alignment would have.
The highest ground east of the MississippiMount Mitchell rises to 6,684 feet and the spur road to it leaves the Parkway near milepost 355, in a spruce-fir forest unlike anything below.
A heath bald that is not a natural clearingThe heath balds at Craggy Gardens are open ground whose origin is still argued, and the rhododendron display is what draws the traffic.
Where the road crosses overThe route uses gaps in the ridge line, and the gaps are also where the older roads and the settlements already were.

In this section

Moss-covered conifer trunks line a gravel path through a dense forest — The highest ground east of the Mississippi

A wooden visitor center with an American flag near a mountain ridge — A heath bald that is not a natural clearing

Aerial view of a valley with fields and a winding road framed by mountain ridges — Where the road crosses over

A site about the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway: where the road runs, how it was built, and the rules that keep it looking like this.

1935 · 1987 · milepost 304

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