Randy Johnson - Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway: The Ultimate Travel Guide to Americas Most Popular Scenic Roadway

Randy Johnson is an award-winning travel writer and editor who has lived in the Southern Appalachians most of his life and written widely on travel and the outdoors for newspapers and ski and travel magazines. He is the author of the acclaimed new book Grandfather Mountain: The History and Guide to an Appalachian Icon, as well as the classic Southern Snow: The Winter Guide to Dixie (due out again in 2018), Hiking North Carolina, Best Easy Day Hikes Blue Ridge Parkway, and Best Easy Day Hikes Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For years he was editor-in-chief of United Airlines Hemispheres, the United States most award-winning airline magazine (named worlds best in-flight magazine in 2006).

Randy has a unique history with the Parkway. He proposed and implemented the trail management program at Grandfather Mountain as the Parkway was being completed on the mountain. He reclaimed the mountains trails, built new paths, and helped lay the groundwork for the mountains designation as a United Nations Biosphere Reserve. He was a trail design consultant for the Parkways Tanawha Trail on Grandfather and helped create the system of state park and national park trails found on the mountain today. Previous editions of this book have recommended hikes that were later formalized by the National Park Service.

Hes currently the task force leader for the Grandfather Mountain portion of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and a member of the Grandfather Mountain State Park Advisory Committee. Randy has hiked and skied all over the world and is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. He invites you to visit his website (randyjohnsonbooks.com) to send him an e-mail or read more about his books.

Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway

HELP US KEEP THIS GUIDE UP TO DATE

Every effort has been made by the author and editors to make this guide as accurate and useful as possible. However, many things can change after a guide is publishedtrails are rerouted, regulations change, techniques evolve, facilities come under new management, etc.

We would appreciate hearing from you concerning your experiences with this guide and how you feel it could be improved and kept up to date. While we may not be able to respond to all comments and suggestions, well take them to heart, and well also make certain to share them with the authors. Please send your comments and suggestions to the following address:

Globe Pequot

Reader Response/Editorial Department

246 Goose Lane

Guilford, CT 06437

Or you may e-mail us at: editorial@falcon.com

Author Randy Johnson is also happy to hear from readers. Please visit his website, where youll find multimedia features about hiking and more information about Randy and his books: www.randyjohnsonbooks.com.

Thanks for your input, and happy trails!

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Copyright 2003, 2010, 2017 by Rowman & Littlefield

Photos by Randy Johnson unless otherwise credited

TOPO! Maps 2017 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Information available

The Library of Congress has catalogued the earlier edition as follows:

Johnson, Randy, 1951

Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway: the ultimate travel guide to Americas most popular scenic roadway / Randy Johnson1st ed

p. cm. (A Falcon Guide)

ISBN 0-7627-1105-1

1. HikingBlue Ridge Parkway (N.C. and Va.)Guidebooks 2. Blue Ridge Parkway

(N.C. and Va.)Guidebooks.

I. Title II. Series

GV199.42.B65J64 2003

917.55dc21

2002041646

ISBN 978-1-4930-2460-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-2461-2 (e-book)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

The author and Rowman & Littlefield assume no liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in the activities described in this book.

To past and present Appalachian familiesthe people who know how much you have to love the mountains to live there.

And to the men and women of the Blue Ridge Parkwaywho help the rest of us appreciate why its worth the effort.

As we pass the 2016 centennial anniversary of the National Park Service, never has the importance of the Blue Ridge Parkway been clearer to me. The 469-mile route is much more than a road. It is one of the most biodiverse places in the temperate world. It is a living history museum protecting and passing on the stories of Appalachian culture, music, and life. It is a wondrous landscape brimming with outdoor adventures waiting to be experienced.

Still, the Parkway struggles to maintain a delicate balance between beauty and prosperity. In addition to welcoming more visitors than any other National Park unit (over fifteen million in 2015), the Blue Ridge Parkway is the number one economic engine for the communities that border a route that stretches from Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In 2015, visitors spent more than $952 million in the region. Add in factors such as jobs provided and the total impact is $1.3 billion.

Behind the economic impact on local communities, the often hidden critical issue is how the National Park Service keeps up with the sheer task of managing the countrys longest linear park and its throngs of annual visitors. The Parkway currently has more than $516 million in deferred maintenance needs. Restaurants and lodging buildings stand shuttered because of shortfalls in funding. Crumbling infrastructure and vacant staff positions can be seen and felt by the visiting public.

As you explore this national treasure, you cant help but notice the greatness that exists, but also note the greatness that could be. Then act. Through the many organizations that support the Parkway, including the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, you can give, volunteer, and become a voice for the protection of this spectacular place.

Randy Johnsons one-of-a-kind, updated guide, Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway, introduces you to many of the destinations you can explore in and around the Parkway. His rich descriptions and vivid color photographs will give you a glimpse of what awaits you out on the trailand help you plan the perfect Parkway trip.

After experiencing the Blue Ridge Parkway, youll go home changed for the better. Lets all cherish that experience. Better yet, lets share it with future generations, the people who will care for our public lands into the next one hundred yearsif we just show them the path.