The Blue Ridge Parkway turns 90 and it’s still the best free drive in the entire country

It’s the country’s most driven parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains through Virginia and North Carolina, connecting Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

More than 16.5 million people drove it in 2025, making it the most visited unit in the entire National Park System. You don’t pay a dime to get on.

The speed limit tops out at 45 mph, and commercial vehicles can’t use the road.

This is a drive built for looking, not rushing, and it threads through some of the oldest mountains on earth.

A Depression-era road that took 52 years to finish

President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved construction in 1935 as a New Deal project to put people to work in the struggling Appalachian region. The Parkway joined the National Park Service a year later.

Then World War II shut everything down. Work picked back up in stages after the war, but the road didn’t fully open until 1987.

The final piece was the Linn Cove Viaduct curving around Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. In all, the route passes through 29 counties and 26 tunnels blasted through rock.

A water-powered mill still grinding at Milepost 176

Mabry Mill in Floyd County, Virginia, is one of the most photographed spots on the Parkway. Ed and Lizzie Mabry started building their water-powered gristmill and sawmill in 1903.

The property also held a blacksmith shop and wheelwright operation, and it served as a hub for the rural Meadows of Dan area. After Ed died in 1938, the National Park Service bought and restored everything.

You can walk a short trail past the mill, a blacksmith shop, a cabin, a sorghum mill and a whiskey still exhibit.

Three peaks surround a lake at Milepost 86

Peaks of Otter sits in one of the most scenic stretches of the Virginia section.

Three mountains box it in: Sharp Top at 3,875 feet, Flat Top at 4,001 feet and Harkening Hill at 3,372 feet. Abbott Lake rests at the base, and a paved loop circles the water with mountain reflections on calm mornings.

You can hike or catch a shuttle to the top of Sharp Top for views that open in every direction. The area also has picnic grounds, a campground and some of the best stargazing on the Parkway.

An S-shaped bridge built from the top down

The Linn Cove Viaduct at Milepost 304.4 curves 1,243 feet around Grandfather Mountain in a slow S-shape. It was the last section of the Parkway to go in, finished in 1983 and opened to traffic in 1987.

Workers assembled 153 precast concrete segments, each weighing 50 tons, and only one of them is straight. They built it from the top down so they wouldn’t tear up the fragile mountain slope below.

You can walk a paved trail from the parking area and stand right underneath it.

Nearby Rough Ridge at Milepost 302.8 gives you a boardwalk view of the viaduct clinging to the rock.

A three-tiered waterfall drops into a southern gorge

Linville Falls at Milepost 316.3 pulls more visitors than almost any other waterfall on the Parkway. The water drops in three tiers into Linville Gorge, which locals call the Grand Canyon of the Southern Appalachians.

The Erwins View Trail runs 1.6 miles round trip and hits four different overlooks of the falls and the gorge below. If you want a closer look, a steeper trail drops to the Plunge Basin at the base.

Nearby Duggers Creek Falls is a quick walk from the parking area.

The tallest peak east of the Mississippi sits right off the road

Mount Mitchell reaches 6,684 feet and you can get there from Milepost 355.4 by turning onto NC Highway 128. North Carolina made it the state’s first state park back in 1915.

A short, paved, wheelchair-accessible trail takes you from the parking lot to a 360-degree observation deck at the top.

The Black Mountain range formed more than a billion years ago, and the summit climate runs closer to southeastern Canada than North Carolina.

Temperatures here drop 15 to 20 degrees below Asheville on any given day.

Pink and purple rhododendrons take over every June

Between Mileposts 364 and 367, Craggy Gardens sits at a mile-high elevation north of Asheville. Every June, Catawba rhododendrons cover the slopes in pink and purple.

The Craggy Pinnacle Trail takes you through twisted tunnels of rhododendron to a summit with views in every direction. Another trail crosses open grassy balds with wildflowers and wild blueberries in summer.

The area holds a Natural Heritage designation for its rare plant species.

Fog rolls in and clears fast up here, and temperatures can run 20 degrees cooler than the city below.

The oldest craft shop in the nation sits at Milepost 382

The Folk Art Center near Asheville is home to the Southern Highland Craft Guild, which got its charter in 1930.

The center opened in 1980 through a partnership between the Guild, the National Park Service and the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Three galleries display pottery, woodwork, textiles, jewelry and glass from Appalachian artisans. Inside, the Allanstand Craft Shop has operated since 1895, making it the oldest craft shop in the country.

Guild members demonstrate their work daily in the lobby from March through December. Admission is free, and the center stays open year-round.

Live bluegrass echoes off the mountains at Milepost 213

The Blue Ridge Music Center sits near Galax, Virginia, in a region that runs deep with old-time and bluegrass roots.

The center is part of the National Park System and keeps free indoor exhibits about Appalachian music and where it came from. On summer weekends, live outdoor concerts fill the evening air.

Galax itself has a long history as a hub for traditional mountain music and hosts the annual Old Fiddlers Convention. You can trace generations of fiddle, banjo and vocal traditions without leaving the Parkway corridor.

Wild blueberries and the highest point on the Parkway

Graveyard Fields at Milepost 418.8 got its name from tree stumps that looked like headstones after a windstorm and a 1925 wildfire stripped the valley bare.

Now you’ll find looping trails, waterfalls including the 40-foot Second Falls, and wild blueberry picking in late summer.

Farther south, Richland Balsam at Milepost 431 hits 6,053 feet, the highest point on the entire Parkway.

Waterrock Knob at Milepost 451.2 stands at 6,292 feet near the southern end and ranks among the best spots for sunrises, sunsets and stargazing with almost no light pollution.

Hurricane damage closed major sections, but repairs are underway

Hurricane Helene tore through in late 2024 and triggered more than 57 landslides along the Parkway, shutting down major stretches during peak season. Repairs will cost over one billion dollars.

Phase one wrapped up in time for the 2025 fall season, and phases two and three should finish by fall 2026. The Parkway also closes sections every winter when snow and ice hit the higher elevations.

Check the NPS closure map online before you plan a trip. When the road is open, more than 300 miles of hiking trails run through the corridor.

Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia and North Carolina

You can pick up the Parkway at dozens of access points between Waynesboro, Virginia, and Cherokee, North Carolina.

Mileposts run north to south, starting at zero near Shenandoah National Park and ending at 469 near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

There is no entrance fee, and the road stays open year-round wherever weather and repairs allow. You don’t have to drive all 469 miles to get the experience.

Pick a section, check the official website or call 828-348-3400 for current closures and conditions, and go from there.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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