Driving on The Blue Ridge Parkway

After finishing the Catawba Falls hike, we decided to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had read that the leaves were nearing the end of their peak for colors so my mom and I were excited to see what it was like! The fall colors around Asheville were so pretty so we were curious to see what the Blue Ridge Parkway was like. 

Pictures just do not do the Parkway justice. The colors were so vivid and vibrant! Although there were some dark clouds moving through the day we were traveling so that didn't help picture taking unfortunately! So it was either really dark or really bright which was difficult to work with.

The drive was very slow going. The road follows the hillsides and then meanders back in for some straight sections. The road really twists and turns and is all over the place. The speed limit is 45 in the straight sections, which is really where you want to make up some time but I always seemed to get stuck behind someone going 30mph which was frustrating!

A lot of the scenic overlooks were packed with cars so we ended up having to just pass by. And other places you have to just park on the side of the road. We weren't expecting there to be so many cars. Oddly enough, the road itself didn't seem to have many cars but all of the overlooks were crowded. 

Anyways, we stopped where we could and took pictures but there were a lot more places we would have liked to have stopped but weren't able to. 

When I say the drive was slow going I really mean it. We didn't stop for too long when we did stop, and from when we left Catawba falls to where we ended up past Boone, NC, it was only about 80 miles but it took us over 4 hours!!!

We were not at all planning on the drive taking this long! It was nearing 4pm, we didn't know where we were (there weren't signs telling you anything which was weird.) and cell service was hard to come by. We finally found a park and decided to figure out our next move. 

Come to find out we had passed right by Boone, NC, and had no idea. We go on quite a few road trips and are always watching signs, so it was weird that there weren't any signs telling you where you were.

Considering how late it was, how slow the drive was going, and the fact we didn't want to get stuck on this road after dark, we just decided to make our way to the interstate so we could be near decent sized towns so we could find a hotel for the night. We ended up just driving to Durham, NC.

So if you ever decide to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, my advice would be to give yourself PLENTY of time. You are not going to get very far very fast! So maybe just pick a section you want to drive and do that instead of planning on driving a large section. But overall the drive is very beautiful!

Have you ever driven on a scenic or historic roadway?