Wednesday, the group and I were up on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Waynesville and Asheville, NC. Looking for a repeat of the heavy cloud cover of the day before, we gain altitude as the car pool drives west about 8AM. Anticipating that distant mountain peaks might peek through dense clouds — we are not disappointed. But we are challenged.
Bob Grytten Image
What I liked most about this image was the foreground mountains creating a feeling of depth. Also, the peak in the distance top right creates interest and provides a balance to the mass on the left.
However, moving in closer with a long lens we are able to create a feeling of walking right on the clouds… What a great morning!
We’re at 6200 feet elevation and passing Haywood Gap, ready for what the next corner brings.
But, in the mountains there’s always something more around the corner…
And after a brief dead end, here it is.
Forms, lines, shapes, colors indicate what is to be taken by camera and lens. Something here, something there… and so it goes.
Fourty five minutes were spend and wind our way back down Rt 215 – the road of the snake
| Blue Ridge Parkway | |
|---|---|
|
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
|
|
The parkway near Grandfather Mountain
|
|
| Location | North Carolina & Virginia, USA |
| Nearest city | Asheville, NC & Roanoke, VA |
| Coordinates | 36°31′07″N 80°56′09″W |
| Area | 93,390 acres (377.9 km2) |
| Established | June 30, 1936 |
| Visitors | 12,877,368 (in 2013)[1] |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
|
Blue Ridge Parkway |
|
|---|---|
Blue Ridge Parkway route map
|
|
| Route information | |
| Maintained by NPS | |
| Length: | 469 mi[2] (755 km) |
| Existed: | June 30, 1936 – present |
| Major junctions | |
| North end: |  US 250 in Rockfish Gap, VA |
| South end: |  US 441 in Swain County, NC |
| Highway system | |
| National Parkway National Scenic Byway |
|
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America’s longest linear park,[3] runs for 469 miles (755 km) through twenty-nine Virginia and North Carolina counties, mostly along the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Its southern terminus is on the boundary between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, from which it travels north to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and offers access to the Skyline Drive. While the two roads join together end-to-end, they are separate and distinct entities, built as two different projects and managed by two different National Park Service units. The Blue Ridge Parkway was built to connect Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Parkway, while not a “National Park,” has been the most visited unit of the National Park System every year since 1946 except one (1949).[4] Land on either side of the road is owned and maintained by the National Park Service and, in many places, parkway land is bordered by United States Forest Service property. The Parkway will be depicted on North Carolina’s version of the America the Beautiful quarter in 2015.[5]
