Blue Ridge National Parkway

- Northern Entrance -

Two days before our 25th anniversary, we took a day trip down the Blue Ridge National Parkway to the Peaks of Otter.

The 469 mile parkway connects the Shenandoah NP in Virginia and Great Smoky Mountains NP in North Carolina.

Blue Ridge Mountains

A view of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the Blue Ridge National Parkway in Southern Virginia on an ordinary hot, hazy July summer day.

More distant mountain peaks are lost in the haze.

This mountain cabin at Humpback Rocks Visitor Center is part of a working pioneer farm maintained by the National Park Service on the Blue Ridge National Parkway. The Center is at milepost 6 on the Parkway.

We visited the farm on August 31, 2001, while on a weekend vacation from the Federal Executive Institute training program.

Sharp Top Mountain

On our August 2001 visit, I climbed about half way up this mountain before I ran out of time on Saturday afternoon and had to head down to make it back before dark. I'd already done one hike that morning with Brian, so I was probably not moving as fast as usual.

This picture was taken from the Inn at the Peaks of Otter, where we stayed that weekend. It is at mile post 87. Peaks of Otter has been a popular location to see spectacular views and sunrises since the days of Thomas Jefferson. There is also the lovely Abbott Lake with a popular one-mile hiking trail around it.