Alt Text Map of Blue Ridge Parkway, which spans Virginia and North Carolina. The parkway is shown as a yellow line cased in green that winds south and slightly west through towns and national forests. Parks are shaded in green, towns in yellow, surrounding areas in tan, and roads in shades of brown. Extended Description The northern and southern ends of the parkway are labeled with mileposts starting at 0 at the northern terminus and continuing to milepost 469 at the southern terminus. This description will begin at the top of the parkway and work down from Virginia to North Carolina, using the mileposts as markers before turning to the surrounding areas. Along Blue Ridge Parkway: Virginia The Northern End of Blue Ridge Parkway picks up at the Southern End of Shenandoah National Park (Skyline Drive), both just outside the town of Waynesboro, Virginia. After a couple miles the parkway enters George Washington National Forest, which stretches down past milepost 100. From the top down, sites on or near the parkway within the first 50 miles include Humpback Rocks Visitor Center and Farm, which has restrooms; a picnic area with restrooms open seasonally; Raven’s Roost overlook, Sherando Lake, US Forest Service, which has a picnic area with restrooms and campground; Whetstone Ridge with restrooms; Yankee Horse Ridge overlook; Chimney Rock Mountain Overlook; Indian Gap overlook; and Punchbowl Overlook. The parkway continues past the following sites in the lower fifty miles of the forest: a tunnel with red text reading 13ft 7in; Otter Creek with a campground; James River Visitor Center and Canal with restrooms and a picnic area; Thunder Ridge Overlook; Cave Mountain Lake, US Forest Service with a picnic area with restrooms and campground; Peaks of Otter Visitor Center, which has food service, a picnic area, lodging, campground, camp store, and restrooms; Harvey Knob Overlook; and Great Valley Overlook. The parkway exits George Washington National Forest here and continues past the town of Roanoke and the Steward Knob Overlook, Roanoke River overlook, Explore Park Visitor Center, and Roanoke Mountain, which has a picnic area with restrooms around milepost 120. From here the parkway winds down by towns and through smaller parks until it reaches the Virginia-North Carolina border near milepost 220. This final leg in Virginia passes Roanoke Valley Overlook; Smart View with a picnic area and restrooms; Rocky Knob Visitor Center, which has a picnic area with restrooms and campground; Mabry Mill with food service and restrooms; Round Meadow Overlook; Groundhog Mountain overlook; Puckett Cabin overlook; Piedmont Overlook; and Blue Ridge Music Center Visitor Center, which has restrooms. Along Blue Ridge Parkway: North Carolina There are about seventy miles of parkway in North Carolina before the road enters the next major park, Pisgah National Forest. Between mileposts 220 and 290 are Cumberland Knob, which has a picnic area with restrooms; Fox Hunters Paradise overlook; Little Glad Mill Pond overlook; Stone Mountain State Park with a campground; Air Bellows Gap overlook; Doughton Park Visitor Center with a picnic area, campground, camp store, and restrooms; Northwest Trading Post with restrooms and food service; on Jumping Off Rock Overlook; The Lump overlook; E.B. Jeffress park with a picnic area and restroom; Tompkins Knob Overlook/Jesse Brown Cabin; and Daniel Boon’s Trace. Cherokee National Forest, to the left, abuts Pisgah National Forest south of milepost 290. The parkway continues through Pisgah National Forest, which reaches just past milepost 370. Between mileposts 290 and 330 are Moses H. Cone Memorial Park Visitor Center and Craft Store, which has restrooms; Julian Price Memorial Park with restrooms, a picnic area, campground, and canoe rental; Linn Cove Viaduct Visitor Center with restrooms; Grandfather Mountain State Park; Beacon Heights overlook; Flat Rock overlook; Linville Falls Visitor Center with a campground, restrooms, and nearby picnic area; and Chestoa View, Bear Den, and McKinney Gap overlooks. The next forty miles of the parkway in Pisgah National Forest travels past the Museum of North Carolina Minerals Visitor Center with restrooms; Crabtree Falls, which has a picnic area with restrooms and campground; Green Knob overlook; Mount Mitchell State Park with food service and picnic area with restrooms; Glassmine Falls Overlook; Graybeard Dome Overlook; Craggy Dome Overlook; Craggy Gardens Visitor Center with restrooms and picnic area; and Lane Pinnacle Overlook. A stretch of almost twenty miles travels through Asheville and by the Folk Art Center, which has restrooms, Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center and Park Headquarters with restrooms, and Biltmore Estate. Just beyond milepost 390 the parkway crosses from Pisgah National Forest to Nantahala National Forest at mile marker 424 before exiting around milepost 450. Sites in this section include Lake Powhatan US Forest Service, which has a campground; Mt. Pisgah, which has food service, a picnic area with restrooms, lodging, campground, and camp store; Cradle of Forestry Forest Service; Cherry Cover Overlook; Looking Glass Rock Overlook; Graveyard Fields Overlook; and Waterrock Knob Visitor Center, which has restrooms. The final leg travels through Cherokee Indian Reservation past three tunnels with red text reading 11 ft 1 in, 10 ft 6 in, and 11 ft 3 in, the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, and a green callout box labeling the Southern End of Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 469. Around the Parkway Skyline Drive weaves down from the top edge of the map through Loft Mountain Information, which has food service, a campstore, and campground in Shenandoah National Park. The town of Harrisonburg lies west, Charlottesville east, and Santon is just west of Waynesboro where Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway meet. A second section of George Washington National Forest joins with Jefferson National Forest, which stretches along the left edge of the map and almost reaches the Virginia-North Carolina line. Douthat State Park and the towns of Clifton Forge and Covington are within the forests, and Blacksburg, Pearisburg, Radford, Claytor Lake State Park, which has a campground, Dublin, Pulaski, Hillsville, Wytheville, Galax, Rural Retreat, and Marion lie between the forests and the route of the parkway through Virginia. Continuing south, the Cherokee National Forest falls mostly in Tennessee. Sites between this northern tip of Tennessee and the bottom left corner of the map include Mountain City, Elizabethton, Johnson City, Erwin, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is near the southern terminus of the parkway. Several sites in the park have campgrounds, including Cosby, Cataloochee, Balsam Mountain, Smokemont, and Deep Creek. Heintooga Overlook has a picnic area with restrooms. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail runs alongside Skyline Drive and then winds back and forth across Blue Ridge Parkway as it traverses George Washington National Forest in Virginia. The trail turns west at the southern tip of the forest and crosses first into Jefferson National Forest and then Cherokee National Forest, another section of Pisgah National Forest, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park before angling off the edge of the map near the lower left corner. Towns and sites east of the parkway from the top down include Lynchburg, Bedford, Smith Mountain Lake State Park with a campground, Booker T. Washington National Monument (NM), Rocky Mount, Fairy Stone State Park with a campground, and Stuart in Virginia. Mount Airy, Lenoir, Morganton, Chimney Rock State Park, Hendersonville, Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, Dupont State Recreational Forest, and Gorges State Park are in North Carolina, also east of the parkway. Black dotted lines representing the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail cross Cherokee National Forest, Blue Ridge Parkway in Pisgah National Forest, and travel south from near Stone Mountain State Park to pass through Lenoir and Morganton before continuing off the right edge of the map. Text there reads, “American Revolution patriots crossed the mountains in 1780 to defeat British loyalists at Kings Mountain, South Carolina.” Legend A scale in the upper right corner of the map measures distances of 1, 5, and 10 kilometers and 1, 5, and 10 miles. A compass shows north angled to the left. The legend reads as follows: Green number alongside yellow line for Milepost along Blue Ridge Parkway, Black semicircle for Overlook, Brackets that stop short of a yellow line for No direct access to parkway, Red double lines across yellow line for Tunnel clearance: under 13 feet (most are near the southern end of parkway), Green dashed line for Appalachian National Scenic Trail, Black dotted line for Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, and Orange number for Distance indicator (miles). A column of symbols represents Food service, Restrooms (open seasonally), Lodging, Campground, Campstore, Canoe rental, and Picnic area with restrooms (restrooms open seasonally).