Travel/Places/Outdoor
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series Before anyone saw the train, they heard it. A whistle drifted up the valley, followed by the steady effort of a steam engine pulling against the grade. In cold mountain air, sound carried farther than you might expect. The Creeper let people know it was coming long before it…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series Most places in the mountains reveal themselves slowly. A curve here, a drop in the ridge there. Burkes Garden Virginia works differently. You don’t stumble into it. You cross a boundary. You feel the climb, the narrowing road, the way the ridge draws close before it finally…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The Parkway Looks Natural, But It Isn’t Most travelers pull off at a Blue Ridge overlook, believing the scene has always looked that way. They take in the ridgeline, the sweep of open meadow, the clean line where the forest breaks, and they assume the mountains arranged…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. Travelers along the Blue Ridge Parkway pass old cabins without giving them much thought. The cabins stand close to the road with their porches weathered and their roofs settling a little. Most folks see them as scenery. Look long enough, though, and the details begin to talk….
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. I love driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. Early on an autumn morning there’s a mist in the air and sunlight sparkles off the freshly mowed hayfields where round bales wait in the dew. Visitors congregate at the overlooks. They take in the horizon, nod at the quiet,…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. From the pull-off near Rocky Knob, Rock Castle Gorge lies open below the Blue Ridge Parkway. Ridges step down into the valley where families once farmed and built their homes. Most visitors see only the view, not the community that once filled the hollow. When the Blue…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The View That Cost Everything Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway on a quiet weekday morning, and it’s easy to believe it has always been this way: peaceful and polished. Each curve feels natural, as if the road simply followed the shape the mountains already offered. Beauty like…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. Mount Airy NC: A Town That Feels Like Mayberry The bronze statue outside the Andy Griffith Playhouse catches the last light of day. Sheriff Andy Taylor holds Opie’s hand, fishing poles slung over their shoulders, just as they did in the opening credits of The Andy Griffith…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The stone arch cuts a clean curve into the mountain, framing the tunnel. At the entrance to the Blue Ridge Tunnel, faint drips and echoes are heard. The wind carries the smell of damp rock. Step forward, and the daylight behind you starts to shrink, the cool…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. In Meadows of Dan, Virginia, the Blue Ridge Parkway passes a weathered frame building that has stood since 1892. Travelers know it as the Mayberry Trading Post. The name catches the eye because it recalls Andy Griffith’s television Mayberry, but this place is real. Its story is…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. A Valley with a Funny Name While America was toasting its new transcontinental railroad in Utah on May 10, 1869, Roanoke, VA, was just a mountain crossroads called Big Lick. Named for the large natural salt deposit, this lick attracted wildlife in droves: buffalo, deer, and elk,…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. It’s a quiet morning in Fries, Virginia, and the New River is doing what it’s always done—slipping past the banks with ageless calm. The cotton mill that gave the town its name and purpose is long gone, but you’d swear you can still hear the echoes. Not…