blue ridge travel

An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. You’re driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, following its steady curves along the ridgeline. The road rises and falls, opening long views to either side. The rhythm is continuous. You move with it. Then the brown sign appears: Rocky Knob Recreation Area. Turn signal. Tires leave the main lane. Speed…

An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series A gravel pull-off. A short path through weeds. The sound of water before you see it. Below the bridge, the New River slides past in a wide, steady sheet. A kayak drifts through the current. Someone beside you says, almost casually, that this is the river that runs backward….

An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series  You drive west on a two-lane highway where the white lines are faded and the shoulder is narrow. The road bends with the land instead of cutting through it. A brick post office sits near a four-way stop. A hardware store with a gravel lot holds a row of pickup trucks. The storefronts are modest. The…

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….