Spring rain moves in from the right across the lowlands below the Blue Ridge Parkway. Down below, a farm hides in a hollow, spring leaves soak up the rain, while buds still break above 3,000 feet. A tripod and longer exposure deepens the saturation and blurs the incoming squall.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, between Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks, is a prime venue to a secret season—the explosive beauty and bounty of Appalachian Spring.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, between Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks, is a prime venue to a secret season—the explosive beauty and bounty of Appalachian Spring.
Framed by the flaming azalea bloom along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Shenandoah Valley sprawls in a pastoral patchwork of farms and fields below Raven's Roost Overlook (Milepost 10.7, 3,200 feet).
With an eye on the prize, this year's crop of would-be Appalachian Trail thru-hikers are getting ready to hit the trail. With that in mind, here are some stats, courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, to help them stay focused.
People seem to like numbers, and hierarchy, so here's a rundown of the leading units of the National Park System in terms of 2011 visitation. The first list combs through all 397 units in the system, while the second looks only at "national parks."
At the time when most of the Blue Ridge Parkway seems closed in North Carolina, you can take a delightful, short hike on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail to Rattlesnake Lodge. You'll see the many remains of the summer home of Chase Ambler.
Repairs to two Blue Ridge Parkway tunnels will interdict the high road from mid-February through mid-April between Asheville and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.