Just got back this afternoon. 10 days on the road, Skyline drive BRP and the smokies. Great ride and only hit rain two days for about an hour each day. Just under 2000 miles round trip and only 1 1/2 days of interstate driving. Wheels thru time museum, they are scheduled to close for good in october and move operations from Maggie Valley to Colorado Springs. Going to download pics in road trip sections.

 

Sounds like a great trip! Anytime you can do 10 days in the mountains with only a couple of hours of rain is a special trip indeed!

 

Always great when the weather cooperates. As part of our trip last week, we rode a few hundred miles of the BRP. Spectacular rode and look forward to riding it again. How was the Skyline Drive portion? Did you have a favorite section?

Regarding Wheels Through Time, we spent a couple of hours there. What a great place. Dale spent much of the time showing us around. Great guy and he really makes the place come alive. BTW, the blue caddy belonged to Neil Young.

 

I'm going to do skyline drive in sept ., any pointers would be helpful!

 

Best pointer...don't ride faster than your guardian angel can fly. Keep an eye on the road, easy to get distracted in that area with the scenery.

 

Good advice. I think I've seen more wildlife on the road or on the side of the road on Skyline ( deer, turkey, ground hog, bear ) than any other area I've ridden in. And I've done Skyline and the BRP end to end twice.

 

Any difference between the Skyline Drive section and the rest of the BRP?

 

For some reason, Skyline Drive has a whole different feel to it than the Blue Ridge Parkway. Both are terrific roads. I suppose it's because Skyline Drive runs along the high ridge for most of its length whereas the BRP runs the ridges and goes to the valley as well. You can get a speeding ticket pretty easy on each (don't ask me how I know...), so best to pay attention to your speed. The BRP seems a bit more curvy, and the speed limit is higher than Skyline Drive, so it's easy to keep the speed down to tolerable levels. Skyline Drive has a lower speed limit with longer straight sections, so it's easy to twist that throttle a bit much and attract the attention of LEO.

Best advice though? Stop and smell the roses! My biggest temptation is to cover more miles and miss all the wonder of the waterfalls, scenic views, and cool shade. Make it a point to stop often, take pictures, and relax. That's the key to a great trip, and I plan to do that exact thing one of these days!

 

Just got home from doing Skyline Drive and the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway over the Memorial Day weekend (Fri-Mon). I liked Skyline Drive better, seems to stay along the ridgeline more and to me there are more straight sections along the VA portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Later this summer I'm doing the full length down to Deals Gap and the Cherohala Skyway and am looking forward to it. Total drive over 4 days was a little over 1000 miles with the length home on each end. Was a goodtrip with only about an hour of rain on the south end of the Skyline drive Friday evening. Saw 2 bears on Skyline drive, one during the rain when coming around a corner found him sharing my lane. Not sure who was startled most , but we both kept on about our business, him tearing up a log alongside the road and me looking for a dry spot. The rest of the weekend weather was great, until at the end the OL and I were hoping for some rain to quench the 95+ heat on our last leg home. The scenery was great on both roads with little traffic volume for a holiday weekend until around Roanoke where it seemed like all the locals came out to have an old car rally at the one place where there is a restaurant right on the Parkway.

 

Outstanding picture!!!!!