Skip to main content

The Blue Ridge Parkway

For over 60 years, the Blue Ridge Parkway has combined modern travel with the splendor of nature. Unlike the thousands of miles of superhighways that grace this nation, the 469-mile parkway purposely avoids altering the landscape allowing visitors to enjoy the majestic beauty of the Blue Ridge in North Carolina and Virginia. Linking two popular national parks, Shenandoah and Great Smokey Mountains, the route goes from foothills and farmlands to heights of over 5000 feet. No matter how high or low the elevation, the Parkway is full of endless and spectacular views, hiking trails, and an infinite number of natural possibilities.

In 2003, I began a Blue Ridge Parkway travelogue on my old All Things NC! website. When we shut down the original Gribblenation in 2016, I began to transfer the old pages to the blog as well as adding new stops along the way. This gateway page will continue to be updated as new stops are added from future excursions on this wonderful road.

Site Navigation: 
Virginia: 
North Carolina:
Just off the Parkway:
Parkway Related Roadtrips:
Learn more about the roadtrips behind the features!
For all photo or story inquiries - or if you have information to share - please feel free to comment or reach me directly at aprince27@gmail.com.

Blue Ridge Parkway shield courtesy of Bruce Cridlebaugh.
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...

Hawaii Route 50

Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...