Blue Ridge Parkway Guide

Where Skyline Drive ends at Rockfish Gap, the Blue Ridge Parkway picks up and runs 469 miles of ridgeline south into North Carolina — “America’s Favorite Drive,” a slow, commercial-traffic-free ribbon built for the view and nothing else. The Virginia stretch is the gentle, pastoral half: split-rail fences, the Peaks of Otter rising over a mountain lake, mountain-music heritage at the Blue Ridge Music Center, and Mabry Mill, the little water-powered gristmill that’s the most photographed spot on the entire parkway. There are no billboards, no stoplights, and no hurry — the speed limit is 45 and dropping is the whole idea.