Blue Ridge parkway in the end of May, suggestions please..

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by little BJ

Thanks both of you again. Telling you the truth, I mentioned Blowing Rock just because I thought that if I drive up to the north and stay the night there, I can start the road trip from north and drive down to the south early on Saturday to enjoy the view along the PW. However, I just have no idea whether I should drive along the PW from north to south or I should pick only some route to enjoy some parts of the PW and spend more time at only part or it.

So, for now I don't know exactly where to go but the point is to enjoy the fantastic scenery of the PW (lots of photography) and, if possible, some hiking.
The craggy garden sounds good. I'm not sure whether I could have sometime to stop at some place along the PW such as Asheville, chimney rock,..

Anyway I do really appreciate all your suggestions and information you gave me here
Thanks!

You can head straight to Blowing Rock to start your trip for sure.

Just know that Blowing Rock and Asheville are 100 miles apart on the Parkway.

Top speed on the Parkway is 45 mph, but in many places it is only 35 mph. At that rate, 100 miles can be a very long trip, lol!

In addition, with so much to see between the two places you would have to watch your time and budget it accordingly.

It may be too late in the day by the time you reached Craggy Gardens to hike there (since it is so near Asheville), depending on how much time you spend at places like the Moses Cone home, Julian Price Park and lake, Grandfather Mountain, the Linn Cove Viaduct, Linville Falls and Linville Caverns. But you could start out your day right after leaving Blowing Rock hiking the Daniel Boone Trail on the backside of Grandfather Mountain or just paying the entry fee to visit Grandfather Mountain and do the trials on that side of the mountain - they are all well worth it. Either way you get your hike done early in the trip and then have the rest of the day for lots of other photo ops and sightseeing.

Chimney Rock is a fantastic park, but it is not on the Parkway. You would access it by getting off the Parkway in Asheville and driving about 25 miles of a winding two lane road to it. While this would be on your way back to Charlotte it would also be too late in the day by the time you arrived there to make it worth the entry fee ($15. a person I believe) or see much before they closed the gates for the day.

There really is so much to see and I'm sure you'll enjoy the trip whichever route you take

Here's just one link that might interest you if you want to see some waterfalls: http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/brp1.htm

[little BJ]

Thanks a lot lovesMountains

Actually I just realized that I can do it in the other way too by heading to Asheville in the night, stay at some hotel there and start the road trip from there to the northern part. I can start hiking at Craggy garden in the morning and just cut the chimney rock out or keep it for the next time so that I can utilize my time and make it as far as I could to the north. I might stop by at some trail that leads to more than one waterfall if there is since I think that maybe it doesn't worth to stop by for the trail with only one fall. Also I hope to stop by at Mt. Mitchell and/or little switzerland as you suggest.
Finally, if possible, I may want to stop by at Julian price lake for canoeing (I guess that it worths to do canoeing there).
What do you think? I'm now really excited for this trip wooo hoooo

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by little BJ

Thanks a lot lovesMountains

Actually I just realized that I can do it in the other way too by heading to Asheville in the night, stay at some hotel there and start the road trip from there to the northern part. I can start hiking at Craggy garden in the morning and just cut the chimney rock out or keep it for the next time so that I can utilize my time and make it as far as I could to the north. I might stop by at some trail that leads to more than one waterfall if there is since I think that maybe it doesn't worth to stop by for the trail with only one fall. Also I hope to stop by at Mt. Mitchell and/or little switzerland as you suggest.
Finally, if possible, I may want to stop by at Julian price lake for canoeing (I guess that it worths to do canoeing there).
What do you think? I'm now really excited for this trip wooo hoooo

The only reason I would tell you not to start your adventure from the Asheville side is because you'll have further to go to get to Asheville after you fly into Charlotte (it's almost a 3 hour ride) and there's no reason to go quite that far to get on the Parkway.

Here's my suggestion...follow the directions I already gave you to Mt. Mitchell but stop and spend the night at that Comfort Inn in Marion. The next morning you pick up with my directions again and go up hwy 80 to the Parkway. From there you go to Craggy Gardens first, which puts you passing the entrance to Mt. Mitchell but keeps you from having to go all the way to Asheville at all. After Craggy Gardens you get on the Parkway heading north and THEN stop at Mt. Mitchell. After that you continue north all the way to Blowing Rock with stops at Little Switzerland, Linville Falls etc. You get back to Charlotte by taking hwy 321 south at Blowig Rock all the way to I85.

[little BJ]

Thank you so much! Now I understand and have plan for mostly everything.
I'm going to reserve a room at Comfort Inn. Can't wait to start the trip lol.

Thanks again for all your help and your kindness. You seems to be an expert around here indeed!

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by little BJ

Thank you so much! Now I understand and have plan for mostly everything.
I'm going to reserve a room at Comfort Inn. Can't wait to start the trip lol.

Thanks again for all your help and your kindness. You seems to be an expert around here indeed!

So glad to have been of help!

PLEASE come back and update this thread after your trip to tell us all how it went. And have a great time