BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

We enterd the Parkway a little after 7 AM. There was some fog on the highway and a lot of clouds in the valleys. The speed limit is 45 MPH on the Parkway and there was very little traffic and no trucks. The drive way very enjoyable. It was very quiet. There are dozens of overlooks and when you first get on the Parkway you want to stop at each one to make sure you don't miss anything.

From Wikipedia:

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the U.S., noted for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles (755 km) through the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Land on either side of the road is maintained by the National Park Service and in some stretches, by the United States Forest Service.

Begun during the administration of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, the project was originally called the "Appalachian Scenic Highway." Most construction was carried out by private contractors under federal contracts under an authorization by Harold L. Ickes in his role as federal public works administrator. Work began on September 11, 1935 near Cumberland Knob in North Carolina; construction in Virginia began the following February. On June 30, 1936, Congress formally authorized the project as the "Blue Ridge Parkway" and placed it under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Some work was carried out by various New Deal public works agencies. The Works Progress Administration did some roadway construction. Crews from the Emergency Relief Administration carried out landscape work and development of parkway recreation areas. Personnel from four Civilian Conservation Corps camps worked on roadside cleanup, roadside plantings, grading slopes and improving adjacent fields and forest lands. During World War II, the CCC crews were replaced by conscientious objectors in the Civilian Public Service program.

Construction of the parkway took over fifty-two years to complete, the last stretch (near the Linn Cove Viaduct) being laid around Grandfather Mountain in 1987. Twenty-six tunnels were constructed through the rock, one reason parts of the parkway are often closed in winter. (Due to dripping groundwater from above, freezing temperatures, and the lack of sunshine, ice often accumulates inside these areas.) The highest point on the parkway (between Asheville and Waynesville, in North Carolina) is 6053 feet or 1845m AMSL on Richland Balsam Mountain, and is often closed due to inclement weather such as snow, fog, and even freezing fog from low clouds. The parkway is carried across streams, railways ravines and cross roads by 168 bridges and six viaducts.

The parkway runs from the southern terminus of Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive in Virginia to U.S. 441 at Oconaluftee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Cherokee, North Carolina. There is no fee for using the parkway, however commercial vehicles are prohibited, except for tour buses. The roadway is not maintained in the winter, and sections which pass over especially high elevations and through tunnels are often impassable and therefore closed from late fall through early spring. Weather is extremely variable in the mountains, so conditions and closures often change rapidly.

The parkway uses short side roads to connect to other highways, and there are no exits to the parkway at all from interstates, making it possible to enjoy wildlife and other scenery without stopping for cross-traffic. Mileposts along the parkway are numbered the reverse of most in the U.S., beginning in the northeast and running to the southwest. Also, unlike virtually all other roads in the U.S., the mileposts do not reset to zero when the road crosses a state line. Major towns along the way include Waynesboro, Roanoke, and Galax in Virginia; and in North Carolina, Boone and Asheville, where it runs across the property of the Biltmore Estate. The Blue Ridge Music Center (also part of the park) is located in Galax, and Mount Mitchell (the highest point in eastern North America) is only accessible via a state road from the parkway.