The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road that winds for 469.1 miles from the southern end of Shenandoah National Park’s Skyline Drive in Virginia to U.S. 441 at Oconaluftee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Cherokee.

The Parkway runs through the Blue Ridge Mountains, a part of the Appalachian Mountains, boasting more than 200 overlooks and more than 100 trails. The local section of the Parkway runs from the Southern End in Oconaluftee to the Pisgah Inn on the Haywood, Transylvania County line. Along this stretch of scenic road you’ll find highlights such as the Parkway’s highest elevation overlook at Richland Balsam (6,053 feet), views of Cold Mountain made famous by author Charles Frazier, Waterrock Knob and Oconaluftee Visitors Centers, and Devil’s Courthouse Trail.

Traveling the Parkway can take as much or as little time as you wish. To begin your trip start at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center near Cherokee. The Center, located just south of the Parkway’s end, is adjacent to the Oconaluftee River and has a pioneer homestead called the Mountain Farm Museum. The homestead includes a farmhouse, barns and a mill.

When the park was created in the 1920s and 30s many buildings existed on the property, which was largely private. In the 1930s the national Park Service decided to save mostly the log buildings. Those on display at the Mountain Farm Museum were collected from around the Park and moved to the Visitors Center location.

The center is a great place to get acquainted with the Parkway and the GSMNP, as several maps and books are available and knowledgeable staff can help with hiking trail recommendations, backcountry camping permits, and other general questions about the area.

Head up on the Parkway making sure you stop at Soco Gap Overlook at milepost 456. The gap was a strategic location for the Cherokees, as in the 1700s it was the main route for entering their land from the north and east. The Cherokees maintained an outpost here to protect from the Shawnees and whites. The Cherokee word for the gap is “ahaluna,” meaning ambush place.

The Waterrock Knob Visitors Center at milemarker 451 is a good place to stop for information, exhibits and restrooms. The trail to the top is 1.1 moderately strenuous miles, but the panoramic views are well worth the climb. The trail attains the highest elevation of all Parkway trails, with a 6,400-foot summit. Views to the southeast are of the Cowee and Nantahala mountains, to the northeast of the Newfound mountains.

Continuing with highest points, at milemarker 431 you’ll find the Parkway’s highest elevation overlook at Richland Balsam. A sign marks the location and is a must for photos. A 1.4-mile trail walks you through the remains of a spruce-fir forest — the trees have been damaged both by acid rain and the balsam woolly aphid.

The Devil’s Courthouse overlook at milemarker 422 gives way to Cherokee legend, as it is said that the evil spirit Judaculla once held court inside this rock outcropping. The .86 mile moderately strenuous trail is highly recommended and is a favorite spot for watching hawks ride the hot air currents that rise from the valley below.

As the Parkway bends south, Cold Mountain rises into view with its saddle-like crest and soon appears the Pisgah Inn. The Inn first opened in 1919, a welcome journey’s end for thousands of travelers escaping from the heat of the lowlands in the summer. Today the accommodations are simple, but come with excellent views, as do breakfast, lunch and dinner which are offered seven days a week. At dinner, the Inn features fresh mountain trout baked or charbroiled and filleted at your table upon request.

The Mt. Pisgah trail with a summit view is a strenuous 2.5 miles, the last three-quarter mile of which is a steep set of stairs up. If the whole trip is too much, the first half of the trail is wide, level and typically lined with wildflowers in spring.

Mt. Pisgah campground is the highest Parkway campground at almost 5,000 feet elevation. This campground was formerly part of the Vanderbilt Estate and is near the US Forest Service’s Cradle of Forestry site. The campground usually opens in May. The cost is $18 a night and reservations may be made online at reserveusa.com or by calling 877.444.6777.

The Parkway continues on, wrapping around the eastern side of Asheville and north past Boone into Virginia. Notable locations along the way include the Southern Highlands Craft Guild Folk Art Center, Mount Mitchell State Park and Linville Falls. For more information to help plan your Parkway trip visit www.nps.gov/blri.

Some background

The Blue Ridge Parkway was created as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” which aimed to provide much needed work for skilled and unskilled laborers.

The aim was to link the then newly created Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Construction began on Sept. 11, 1935 — but it wasn’t until 1983, after World War II, several routing delays, and 469 miles of road that the Parkway was completed. In her book Super Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History, Anne Mitchell Whisnant tells the roadway’s 70-year development history. In the first new history of the Parkway to appear in 37 years, Whisnant explores the design and routing of the road, land acquisition and management, relations among landowners, business interests, and government agencies; environmental impacts; and historical and cultural representation and interpretation.

“Exploding one myth after another, Anne Mitchell Whisnant takes readers deep into the hidden history of Appalachia’s beloved scenic road,” says Timothy Silver, author of Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America. “Brilliantly researched and stylishly written, Whisnant’s work demonstrates that many of the Parkway’s most famous landmarks — Peaks of Otter, Little Switzerland, Grandfather Mountain — are as much man-made as natural, having evolved out of human struggles over power, class, and the elusive meaning of ‘public good.’ This is must reading for anyone interested in the southern Appalachians, tourism, national parks, and our ongoing struggle to create a place for ourselves in nature.”

The book is available from BlueRidgeParkwayStore.com. A portion of the profits from all products sold through this online-only store benefit the non-profit Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, and, ultimately, the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Learn more about the Parkway

For the first time in its 73-year history, the Blue Ridge Parkway has a visitor center that represents its entire length, from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Western North Carolina.

“Through its strong partnerships, unique exhibits and environmental design, the Center embraces themes central to the protection, preservation, and thoughtful promotion of the cultural and natural heritage of western North Carolina as well as the entire Blue Ridge Parkway,” said Park Superintendent Philip Francis.

The Destination Center features innovative, high-tech interactive exhibits, and the building itself reflects cutting edge energy-saving technology. Constructed to LEED® certification standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the building features active/passive heating and cooling, radiant floor heating, a “green” roof and other energy efficient features.

This is the first National Park Service visitor center in the country to offer an I-Wall, a 22-foot interactive map of the entire Parkway, which provides multi-media information on places to visit on and near the Parkway. Other exhibits highlight the natural and cultural diversity, economic traditions, and recreational opportunities found in western North Carolina and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Destination Center also houses a 70-seat theater featuring a new film, “The Blue Ridge Parkway-America’s Favorite Journey.” Shown in high-definition surround sound (similar to the I-MAX experience), the 24-minute film captures a father-daughter motorcycle trip along the Parkway that incorporates Parkway history and the region’s cultural and natural sights and sounds.

Information desks are staffed by National Park Service and Blue Ridge National Heritage Area employees and volunteers. The Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. For more information and directions go to www.blueridgeheritage.com or call the Destination Center: 828.298.5330.