A late June day trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina provided some beautiful views before the fog and rain shortened our trip. The parkway is a scenic 469 mile link between Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We traversed about 65 miles of the parkway from NC 191 just south of the French Broad River to NC 226 at Gillespie Gap.
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| View upstream from the French Broad River bridge toward Ball Mountain |
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| View downstream from the French Broad River bridge |
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| Visitor Center and Headquarters |
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| Interior of the Visitor Center |
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| Haw Creek Valley |
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| Tanbark Ridge |
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| The parkway from the Bull Creek Valley overlook |
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| Bull Creek Valley |
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| Lane Pinnacle |
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| View northwest from the Craggy Gardens visitor center |
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| Another view of the ridges northwest of the Craggy Gardens visitor center |
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| The fog moves in at Craggy Gardens |
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| A break in the fog provided a magnificent view along the road |
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| View from Three Knobs overlook |
The parkway website is http://www.nps.gov/blri/index.htm.