The entire reason for this years summer outing begins here. On many of our travels, even before we got Georgie Girl, we would either cross or take a short spurt of the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. Every time engrossed in the beauty it revealed around every corner. And there is nary a straight section. We decided last year after a short jaunt near Grandfather Mountain we would come back and see its entirety. With that, we began plans. There's plenty of information available online and you can find a plethora of books about it. The Parkway is considered the longest linear park in the U.S. and runs for 469 miles with scenic pull offs all along the way like, Mount Mitchell – The highest mountain peak in the eastern US, Linville Gorge – The deepest gorge east of the Grand Canyon, and Whitewater Falls – The highest waterfall east of the Rockies.
Mile markers begin in the North and end in the South. We are beginning our transit at the Southern Terminus. There are 25 Tunnels in North Carolina and 3 of them are too small for Georgie Girl to squeeze through in the first 20 miles. Well, That's not entirely true. Of the three, Georgie Girl could actually fit "IF", we could drive through the tunnels on the center line. But that would cause a fright for any oncoming vehicles and is most likely frowned upon by the National Park Service. Part of our reasoning for staying in Waynesville, NC. was that we could take the car through the first 26 miles and save Georgie Girl, and myself, any embarrassment.
We embarked on that first leg today. I had intended to stop at all of the overlooks and get pictures but, It didn't take long to see how unrealistic that was when several of these overlooks were no longer visible due to tree growth. That and I'd have had to plan another week for the trip if we were stopping that often. So I'll get pictures at the places where we do stop and this will become more of a photo-blog during the course of the next week.
Most of the photos will have a sign of some sort to identify it but I can add additional information like to them if y'all would like. Just let me know in the comments. Have a good evening, I'll update more tomorrow. Cheers!
Remember: If you're on a PC, you can click on any picture to see it full size :-)
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