Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic drive of over 400 miles. It is longer and mostly wider than the Skyline drive. It begins where the skyline drive ends, and gets us to North Carolina. Similar to the skyline drive, we made different detours from the Blue Ridge Parkway backbone.
The Natural Bridge State Park is an easy detour. The bridge is a real wonder, formed by natural rocks from over 500 millions years ago, and it weighs 36000 tons. Its scale is hard to imagine, it is hard to differentiate millions of years, from the hundred millions of years.
In this trip, we came across a few mills which give a glimpse of early settlement in the area. None is as complete, functional and beautiful as the Mabry Mill. Its setting is scenic with the water reflections, with the fall foliage and with its rustic buildings. It has such a display of the mills, the grinds, the moonshine making tools. It is one of my favourite detours. I wish I could have more time to spare.
Blue ridge music center is a worthy detour, to appreciate the history. At the time we arrived, the live music was over, and we had to leave before the gates closed shortly after 5pm. It is a pity. We were quite selective in our stops along the Parkway, but still felt rushed.
With a population of around 20,000, Boone is a charming place to visit. It is beautiful, lively and has everything needed. We were there for less than 24 hours, and I liked it. I was super-tired after checking in the hotel, and could not bring myself to leave the hotel bed for dinner. That fast food take-out was almost an hour of wait, a combination of the labor shortage and touristy season.
We decided to take it easy the day after, and started the next day with a decent breakfast at the Sunrise Grill. It was simply the best breakfast on this trip (not one of): relaxing, delicious, local and authentic, served by a sweet waitress, and consumed alongside the beautiful view of fall foliage. The breakfast got us back to a full tank of energy and ready for the stretch.
That stretch of Blue Ridge Parkway between Boone and Asheville has been widely considered as the most scenic and it lives up to its reputation. Blowing Rock is a nice charming town in that stretch, and we strolled around and got some sandwiches for a picnic at the scenic Moses H Cone memorial park. The Linn Cove Viaduct area is likely the most famous stretch of the Parkway. Built to protect nature, that part of the Parkway has been made of many S-shape sections connected along the mountains. It is a feat of engineering, stunningly beautiful and magnificent in the fall season. We drove back and forth the viaduct a couple of times and never got tired of the scenery.
Trick question: How do the tourists know that they arrive at the right time for the fall colour? Answer: When we run into tons of locals carrying professional cameras and busy taking pictures along the Linn Cove Viaduct!
Julian Price Memorial Park, and the Sims pond was like a heavenly scene as the water reflections bring up the fall colour even more. Little Switzerland has been a sweet little stop along the Parkway, the ice cream, the chocolate, the decor just so Swiss.
The sunny weather seemed to come to an end. It was chilly and overcast as when we hiked up the Mt Mitchell observation deck. On our way up the hundreds of steps to the Chimney Rock, the rain poured down on our rain gear. We could hardly see any view from the top, but within fifteen minutes, it cleared up a bit to allow us to take some photos. The Chimney Rock has a cool setup to allow us to either walk up or take an elevator. With the weather, we took the elevator down.
Biltmore Estate is the largest privately owned house in the United States, built for George Washington Vanderbilt II over a hundred of years ago. The internal decor is nice, and the garden outside is quite beautiful with a conservatory full of interesting plants and florals. It does not have the grandness of the Palace of Versailles, though the house gives a sense of warmth and comfort. The house, the garden and the wine tasting took about six hours and made a good visit. The almost $100 admission fee is still overpriced.
The city of Asheville has more than 90,000 inhabitants, and has a famous tourist attraction of Biltmore Estate. On our walk to find our dinner, we had run into at least a few drivers honking and yelling at us, for no good reasons. It seemed not a friendly city and some drivers were simply rude. The food was good though. We had a delightful and delicious Indian dinner at Andaaz, within walking distance of our accommodation.
Asheville is known for a charming downtown area, a variety of historic and architectural interests. The downtown is lined with many good restaurants but a table can be hard to find without reservations. The downtown stroll was interesting, but a bit uncomfortable. For reasons that cannot be explained, it just felt a bit unsafe. It could be that we felt the drivers did not necessarily give way to pedestrians, and that they honked at pedestrians even when we had the right of way. We had a great dinner at Cucina24, an Italian restaurant serving a set menu of 5 courses of carefully crafted dishes.
Next: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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