On The Road Again

In previous posts I told you about visiting Washington, D.C. and then planning to travel on to sight-see  around the beautiful states of Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and on toward home in Florida.  I love trying to capture the beauty all around us with my camera and there sure was a lot of beauty around as we traveled the back roads of our good ole USA.

We begin our journey on the road again after leaving the charming and historical town of Charlottesville, Virginia,  which I told you about in a previous post.   There is so much history and places of interest in and around Charlottesville, we could have stayed a few days longer.

As I mentioned also in previous posts, it had been raining during our stay in Washington and continuing on during our visit in Charlottesville and as you can see in the below photo the rain is still with us.  There is something so peaceful about rain,  and in a way it has it's own beauty. 

Leaving Charlottesville, we took the short 35 minute drive on Interstate Highway 64 on toward Waynesboro, Virginia, and on to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Parkway begins at Milepost 0 at the historic Rockfish Gap entrance where the elevation is only 1900 feet.

 

The Blue Ridge Parkway is sometimes known as America's favorite drive. It begins at Milepost 0 near Waynesboro, Virginia and ends at Milepost 469 close to Smokey Mountain National Park.   Construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway began in September 1935 and took over 52 years to complete.

 Blue Ridge Parkway Entrance

We entered the park with the rain still falling.  But, the views were still so beautiful.  We often stopped at the pull-off overlooks to look down at the beauty of the valley below.

At our next  pull-off overlook we had driven up high enough to be almost in the clouds.

Do you see what I see!  ...  Is that actually blue sky peeking out at us in the below photo.

With even more intensely blue sky appearing in the below photo, we passed by this beautiful 

pasture with dogwood trees beginning to bloom in the distance.

Another pull-off stop along the parkway.

  Most of the drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway follows the mountain ridgetop.

The highest point on the parkway is south of Waynesville, North Carolina with an 

elevation of 6053 feet at Milepost 431.  Our route would not take us that far on the parkway. 

 

 Construction through this huge rock formation must have been a very difficult job. 

The  huge rocks along the way looked like solid granite before it has been polished.  But, that is only a guess.   There are many beautiful rock formations all along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Looking down into the beautiful valley below from another pull-off along the way.  

I think that must be the Shenandoah Valley down below.

If you look up to the left in the below photo you can see some of the 

stone fencing mentioned in the above sign.

Old Logging Railroad

There is a waterfall up above the Old Logging Railroad.

                  The speed limit is 45 miles an hour all along the Blue Ridge Parkway,  probably
                                because of curves in the roads like this one in the below photo.

Well! Can you believe it!  Finally,  stunningly clear beautiful blue sky ... 

A nice change after days of rain.

We had traveled approximately 60 miles along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway.   We planned to exit the parkway at the Otter Creek exit not too far from the Natural Bridge area.  We knew we had descended to a lower level on the parkway when we spotted Otter Creek in the below photo.  The elevation here was about 650 feet and we did exit at this point.

Otter Creek

We traveled a short distance over to the Natural Bridge area which was a very short distance from Interstate 81 where we planned to be traveling South on into Tennessee, Georgia and on into Florida.

In the below photo a small tributary carved out a gorge in this mountainous limestone,  forming a natural arch 215 feet high and a span of 90 feet.  History tells us Thomas Jefferson once owned this land back in 1774.  The Natural Bridge is open to the public and has hosted visitors from all over the world.

Natural Bridge

At this point in our travels we plan to drive back on Interstate 81 in order to get on down close to Atlanta, Georgia where we have plans to visit some beautiful gardens,  which are a short distance north of Atlanta.

We only traveled a short segment of this amazingly beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway, due to time constraints.  We were glad you came along with us while we enjoyed all the beauty of the mountains all around us,  and the beautiful valley views down below.

I hope you are having a very nice week,  with special blessings each day wherever you may be.