SLIDESHOW

ON THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY Sapped of autumn color by drought, the thirsty trees of the Blue Ridge Mountains aren't as breathtakingly brilliant as they usually are at this time of year.

But beauty is beauty, and it's hard not to be moved standing on the edge of a mountain and peering into the forested distance, admiring filtered sunlight dancing off the reds, golds and greens.

"God sure had his paintbrush working," marveled Bill Vickrey of Burlington, N.C., who stopped to snap a few pictures at the 3,200-foot Ravens Roost Overlook at Milepost 11 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

When it comes to leaf season -- or any other part of the year -- the parkway has few equals. When we asked readers to suggest places we should include in this series, the parkway showed up on just about everyone's list.

That's not surprising. The parkway is the most visited unit in the National Park System, with more than 12 million visitors already this year. The next closest is the Golden Gate National Recreation Area with 10 million. The Grand Canyon, by comparison, has had just over 3.5 million visitors.

Known as "America's Favorite Drive," the parkway is 469 miles of gently twisting roads and unrivaled scenery. The northern terminus of the parkway, just off Interstate 64 near Waynesboro, at Afton Mountain, is a 90-minute drive from Richmond.

The parkway unpretentiously and freely -- there are no tolls -- connects the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks, snaking along the mountainous spines of Virginia and North Carolina and serving as the antithesis of the interstate highway: no 18-wheelers, no billboards, no mad dashing in the fast lane. The maximum speed limit is 45 mph, and you'd best not go that fast in many places.

Besides what are called "descending radius curves" -- turns that require motorists to tighten their steering as they go through it -- you also might encounter bicyclists, hikers and wildlife: deer, bear, even sheep. Throw in the long-range valley views around every other bend, and the inclination is to take your eyes off the road. For just a second.

Don't.

"As pretty as it is," said Randy Sutton, National Park Service interpretive ranger, "it's worth paying attention to what you're doing."

Motorcycles traditionally have a tough time on the parkway; about 50 percent of all wrecks involve motorcycles, according to park service officials.

"You think . . . the parkway's an easy ride, and the next thing you know we're pulling the bike by cable over the mountain," Sutton said. "A motorcycle's a great way to enjoy it, but just know there are some inherent problems traveling the parkway."

What you won't run into on the parkway are fast-food joints, convenience stores or gas stations, although there are a half-dozen official parkway restaurants along the way. Even signage is limited to safety signs and milepost markers so as not to spoil the natural setting, which also means visitors should plan ahead, carry a good map and know where they're going to stay or eat. Either that, or pack a lunch.

Although there are no Burger Kings or 7-Elevens sharing space with the stone bridges and split-rail fences, the parkway offers plenty of places to stop. In addition to frequent overlooks, picnic spots and trails, there are visitors centers and cultural sites every 40 or 50 miles.

Sutton described the various sites along the linear park as "jewels of a long, beaded necklace."

"This park," he said, "is about 20 parks wrapped into one."

Such spots along the Virginia stretch of the parkway include the Blue Ridge Music Center near Galax, Mabry Mill near Meadows of Dan, Peaks of Otter near Bedford, and Humpback Rocks, less than 6 miles south of where the parkway starts at Afton.

At Humpback Rocks, visitors can tour a re-created Appalachian farmstead that includes a collection of old buildings representative of farm life in this region in the late 1800s. The centerpiece of the display is an authentic cabin, built in Rockbridge County more than a century ago for a family of nine, which was dismantled stone by stone and log by log, moved 40 miles and reassembled. On many days between mid-May and the end of October at the cabin, rangers and volunteers demonstrate spinning yarn, making brooms and cooking over the open hearth. On a recent day, squirrel pot pie was bubbling in a Dutch oven.

"The reason I work here is because I love these old-time skills," said Melissa Wender, an interpretive ranger who typically dresses in period clothing and leads tours. "I don't always know how to make a basket or a broom, but when I see what things are made of, I say, 'I know how to grow that!'"

Wender provided the broom corn for the brooms and the gourds for the purple martin houses that hang over the garden where tobacco, onions, potatoes, rhubarb and flax will grow next year.

From the farm, you can walk across the road and follow the mile-long trail to Humpback Rocks themselves.

"I find it exhilarating," said Wender. "It's very uphill, but you'll feel like you really did something, and there are big rewards."

At the top, there's a 360-degree view of the Rockfish and Shenandoah valleys.

Visitation on the parkway so far this year is down from the same time a year ago (13.9 million to 12.8 million). The muted colors of the this autumn's leaves might be part of the reason, but high gas prices seem to be the more likely culprit, Sutton said. Park service officials also have noticed a greater percentage of visitors are coming from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland and other nearby states.

On a magnificent afternoon last week that felt more like June than late October, Mike Poole of Charlottesville and his dog, Johnny Cash, found a secluded spot at the end of a dirt trail leading from the parkway. They sat on a rock, soaking in the silence and the views. The only thing that could have made the spot more perfect would be a stream running close by for Johnny Cash to splash in.

"He loves it up here," Poole said. "But he prefers the water trails."

Poole represents the type of repeat visitors the parkway is drawing these days. He visits four or five times a year, though, "not as much as I'd like."

That might be a common refrain for Virginians who don't take sufficient advantage of this strip of splendor winding through their backyard. There's still time: Sutton figures this autumn's colors, muted as they are by too much heat and not enough rain, might last well into November.
Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Bob Brown at (804) 649-6382 or bbrown@timesdispatch.com.