Scenic Drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway

After driving and viewing the Newfound Gap area, we headed back southeast toward Cherokee, NC.  Between Oconaluftee Visitor Center (the southerly main entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park) and Cherokee, NC is the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Blue Ridge Parkway is 469 miles long and connects the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.  Construction of the parkway began in 1935 and it was finally completed in 1987.  The Blue Ridge Parkway has been designated a National Parkway and an All-American Road by the U.S. Department of Transportation.  These designations were assigned because of the roadway's scenic beauty.  

Since there was plenty of daylight left, we decided to take a relaxing and leisurely drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We began our drive from milepost 469 just off of US-441.  The scenic drive took us past views of Stony Mountain Ridge, Barnett Knob, Big Witch Gap, Bunches Bald, Wolf Laurel Gap, Plott Ridge, Waterrock Knob, Browning Knob, Woodfin Falls, and Balsam Gap.  We stopped randomly to take pictures of along the parkway.  The scenery was especially beautiful as dusk was taking over the horizon.  We turned off of the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Balsam Gap area onto the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway (US-23/US-74) and headed back to our accommodations near Asheville.