The Blue Ridge Mountains are pretty spectacular any time of year, but nothing beats their beauty in peak autumn colors.
And while we were in the peak of the pandemic, the Blue Ridge Parkway offered a perfect opportunity to safely get out of the house while enjoying the season’s stunning sights.
So on a beautiful Saturday morning in October 2020, my husband and I packed up some snacks, gassed up the car, and headed north for a morning ride along “America’s Favorite Drive.”
Mountain Top Views for Miles
Stretching 469 miles across North Carolina and Virginia, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a national treasure. For starters, it’s free. It has around 200 overlooks, so no need to hike a mountain for mountain-top views. But if you do want to hike a mountain, the trail options are endless.
If you’re a cyclist, you can bike it. And there are plenty of activities just beyond the parkway, like stopping for a beer in Asheville or walking across the Mile High Swinging Bridge at Grandfather Mountain.
For this trip, we stuck to the parkway. And because autumn is also peak tourist time for the region (October is a particularly busy month), we decided to get there early. We started on the parkway around 9 a.m. and hopped off it around noon. While traffic seemed to pick up as the day went on, it never felt overcrowded.
Coming up from South Carolina, the easiest access point is from Brevard Road (NC 191) right by the North Carolina Arboretum along the French Broad River. From there you can either head east, which will take you past Asheville and towards Virginia, or you can go west towards Cherokee, NC, where the parkway ends. We chose the latter.
We had no plans for this drive. Just pull over at any overlooks that seem promising and then continue on. When we did stop, we didn’t stay out too long. At climbing elevations, in the morning, in the middle of October, it was chilly. I wore two jackets on top of a t-shirt and wish I had brought something a little thicker.
But the vistas were worth bearing the cool temps. Especially with the fall foliage.
We also had to stop for a photo op at the highest point of elevation along the parkway — 6,053 feet — which is located at Milepost 431 at the Richard Balsam Overlook.
We decided to finish our drive in Waynesville, NC, where we hopped off of the parkway and onto US 23/74. I don’t recommend this for two reasons. 1) We only had about 25 miles left on the parkway before reaching its end. I wish we had stuck with it and fully completed that one section of the drive. 2) Getting onto US 23/74 was terrible. We needed to turn left on it to head east, which meant crossing the two lanes of traffic heading west. And traffic on a Saturday at noon was heavy.
Overall, it was a great trip. The scenery was unbeatable and it was a nice way to spend half a day. If you’re visiting the area, I definitely recommend spending some time on the Parkway. Even a quick out and back to an overlook will be worth it if the weather is nice.
4 Tips for Driving This Section of the Blue Ridge Parkway
If you decide to drive the same route we did, here are some tips to keep in mind.
1) Food options are limited
The Pisgah Inn is the only restaurant and shop actually located along the parkway at Milepost 408.6.
2) Gas up before you go
There are no gas stations on the parkway. If you’re driving this stretch as we did and you need gas, you’ll likely need to hop on U.S. Route 276 to reach the closest options, either south to Brevard or north to Waynesville.
3) Plan your bathroom stops
I’ve done enough hiking that I’m comfortable wandering into the woods, finding a big tree and taking care of business right in nature. If that’s not your style, there are only two places along this stretch of road that I’m aware of that offer bathrooms. (And when I say bathrooms, I mean they might be more like nicer porta potties.) One is the Mount Pisgah Picnic Area at Milepost 407.8 and the other is the Graveyard Fields Trailhead at Milepost 418.8. I’ve only been to the Graveyard Fields one and can’t recall if there is a sink. It’s a good idea to bring hand sanitizer or your own soap and water.
4) The Blue Ridge Parkway isn’t always open
Technically the parkway is open year-round, but much of it gets closed down in the winter due to snow and ice. The National Park Service has the latest updates on road closures and Google Maps usually reflects those.
If you drive this stretch, let me know how it goes!
For More Information About the Blue Ridge Parkway
RomanticAsheville’s Fall Color Predictor for the best times to see autumn colors
