A Traveler's Experience

Blue Ridge Parkway - North Carolina (NC)

Three of my great loves are high-performance vehicles, nature, and photography. The government's National Scenic Byways program enables me and others to combine all three into one all-encompassing trip.

With that being said, The Blue Ridge Parkway is by far the best example of these byways. I've traveled the whole of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway multiple times. The only problem was I live in Atlanta and as hard as I tried I could not seem to get up there by sunrise to take some quality pics. I've tried it three separate times and barely missed sunrise each time for one reason or another.

Much to my surprise I learned that one of my friends had an apartment in Asheville, N.C. Perfect! We went up there one Friday afternoon. We woke up Saturday morning and we were on the BRP by 5 am.

The Parkway around the Asheville area includes the highest points of the entire 469-mile drive. At 5 am the visibility was under one mile and we were forced to a snail's crawl because of the dense, dense fog. This was actually a nice start to the trip. We were at 6,000 feet and it was completely dark with very dense fog. The temperature was a frigid 33 degrees and all of the grass was frozen alongside the road.

We continued like this for an hour and I was starting to worry I was going to miss the sunrise...again! But lo and behold! At 7:30 am the fog lifted. We were on an incline and I saw the brilliant pink and orange hues coming up above the crest of the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. It was a sight I wish I could share with everyone, and I will! (see pic!)I had to pull over and enjoy about a half-hour of the sunrise and I took many, many beautiful pictures as well.

After the sunset, we jumped back into the car and continued up the BRP to the Virginia border. It was such a beautiful day I wished I could've continued all the way up to Front Royal. I will this coming Spring '04.

I started heading back to Atlanta at 2:30pm from the Virginia border. I dropped my buddy back off in Asheville, washed all of the bugs off my 350Z, picked up my date, and made it to a 6:00 pm wedding at 6:01 pm. I got a few dirty looks from the bridesmaids waiting to enter the church but it was well worth it! There is always time for a trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway.