During the last full week of October 2017, Danielle and I traveled from the south end of the parkway at Cherokee, North Carolina to the north end near Waynesboro, Virginia and enjoyed the fall colors along the parkway. We travelled the full length of the parkway except for 28 miles. 14 miles were closed because of a washout. We thought another 14 mile section was closed but while maintenance was in progress, apparently it wasn't actually closed.
Before moving to South Carolina, Jim had lived in Western Washington for 47 years and Danielle had lived there even longer. So we had forgotten how beautiful fall can be so we were excited to spend three days traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway during what should be about the most colorful time in the fall.
You can click the buttons above or below the picture to see more pictures. Use the buttons to change the image or control the speed of the slide show.
The slides are pretty much shown in the order they were taken. Thus, you will see the sights in the same order we saw them.
Our journey on the parkway began at its south end point near Cherokee, North Carolina. Besides all the shops, many of which featured native art and moccasins, there was a beautiful little park called "Oconaluftee Islands Park" named after the river with the islands. (Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2017.)
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On the first day, we traveled about 150 miles on the parkway. Except - about 14 miles were closed because the road had been washed out during a severe rain storm two days earlier. This required a detour though Brevard and Mills River. The day began in Cherokee and ended at Linville Falls. Most of this day was spent in national forests. (Wednesday, 10/25/2017)
There are a lot of pictures in this slide show. If you do not have time to view them all be sure to check out slides 25 and 26.
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On the second day of our journey on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we traveled from Linville Falls, NC to Woolwine, VA for about another 150 miles. This time we also skipped a 14 mile section near Sparta, NC because we had heard that a section was closed. But we eventually learned that it was just having maintenance work being done (at least when we were there). (Thursday, 10/26/2017)
Unlike the first day when the Parkway was largely within National forest land, the second day was for the most part through private land, mostly farm lands. Hence there were many minor crossroads and even a few driveways.
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On Friday we completed the journey on the Parkway. Again it was about 150 miles. There are not as many pictures for this day because the colors were much the same as the first two days. This portion of the trip was not in national forest land so again there were some adjacent roads and farms. (Friday, 10/278/2017)
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After spending the night in the Staunton, VA area, we returned home. While the views were not as great as on the parkway, we did see a nice amount of fall colors. We were able to cover a lot of miles on that day because the trip was via expressways. All four of these pictures were taken from our car traveling at freeway speeds. (Saturday, 10/28/2017)
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