We were on the upper NC section of the Blue Ridge Parkway this year, which has more open, rolling pastureland than you see in the “High Country” lower down. The park’s boundaries are narrower in this section — sometimes only a half-mile wide — so in addition to enjoying some grassland “hobbit hikes” along with our mountain-climbing and waterfalls, we also brushed up against more farms, homes, and… well, cows… this year. (We called them wild cows, or cow-bears, in order to feel more daring and adventurous.) (more…)
Tag: maps
-
Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is 469 miles of gorgeous mountain driving and hiking that stretches from the Cherokee Indian Reservation in western North Carolina all the way up to the Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive in Virginia.
Five years ago my husband and I started hiking the spectacular, sometimes challenging and always beautiful trails that line the BRP in North Carolina, and we fell in love with it so much that we’ve actually decided to move there in the next few years.
How we do it…
We haven’t tried primitive camping yet. We usually tent camp in a campground somewhere along the Parkway, then drive out to wherever we’re section hiking each day. We typically hit the road by 10 am every morning, and return around 5 or 6 pm. We’re not obsessive about stitching together every section (usually), although we sometimes want to do a particular stretch and we’ll work pretty hard to link the parts. I’ll get more into how we do that down below.
Our campsite this year at Mount Pisgah We’ve learned a few lessons in our five newbie BRP hiking/camping years, and if you’re new to it too, maybe some of the things below will inspire you to go ahead and get yourself out there. A whole lotta incredible (and more than one unexpected adventure) is waiting.
If you’re interested in the actual hikes we did this year, scroll on down.
Meanwhile, here’s more additional info than you could possibly ever need… (more…)