Virginia’s Scenic Blue Ridge and The Blue Ridge Parkway

A view from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Roanoke, VA

UPDATED: 2/4/2023

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The Blue Ridge Parkway is ubiquitous to our time living in Virginia: a short, convenient drive to view the fall colors or just get out in nature when we lived in Charlottesville and now in Roanoke, a route to our favorite campsites or a scenic route around town. The Blue Ridge Parkway has some of southwestern Virginia’s best views, scenery, and areas to explore, and a source of trailheads for many of the region’s best hikes.

When I imagine driving across the country, the image that comes to mind is not the interstate system but a road that is slower going, one that displays the nature of its surroundings in an authentic way. In this frenetic, McDonald-ized, world of ours where cities seem - on the surface or at least in sprawling suburbia - like carbon copies of one another, I sometimes doubt anything like this exists. If you are also looking for proof that it does, one such road is the Blue Ridge Parkway. With speed limits of 45 miles per hour and winding roads that often feel isolated from civilization, you’ll also pass picturesque barns and at times drive right near houses that sometimes pre-dated the road.

What is the blue ridge parkway?

The Blue Ridge Parkway traverses 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, starting just outside of Charlottesville, VA, and ending up in southwestern North Carolina near the Smoky Mountains. There is no fee to drive the parkway but where it ends outside of Charlottesville, it meets up with Skyline Drive, which does have an entrance fee, as part of the normal National Park permitting system.

Tip: consider getting an $80 national park annual pass if you frequent parks. They are free on an annual basis to military members and offer a lifetime pass for the small price of $80 for seniors 62 or older. (Prices are accurate as of December 2019).

the blue ridge parkway: know before you go

Because it is a slower route, it is easy to misjudge how much longer it takes to get from point A to point B. Case in point: from our house outside of Roanoke to central Charlottesville takes two hours on the interstate. The same drive on the parkway takes 3 1/2 hours.

the blue ridge parkway: when to go

If you live in either Virginia or North Carolina and have easy access to the route, I’d recommend going any time to explore the sights in your vicinity. If you plan on driving the entire route as a stand-alone trip, I’d recommend fall - ideally mid October - when the leaves are changing (though it’s highly unpredictable when that will occur each year). You can check out the Virginia Department of Forestry’s estimated leaf changing time by region here.

If you are particularly lucky, you’ll experience the same magical lack of cell phone access that I often have on the parkway and pretend - for the length of a drive or a hike - that the 21st century world is in the future, undiscovered.