Blue Ridge Parkway

On all of our trips to Asheville, we've always acknowledged the presence of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but never gotten on it to take a look around. It's a fascinating piece of Americana. Extending 469 miles, and linking two national parks--Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains--the Blue Ridge Parkway is a throwback to a time when people actually took Sunday drives. The maximum speed limit is 45 MPH, and frankly, there are sections where that feels too fast. We got on in Asheville and proceeded north towards Linville Caverns.

Craggy Gardens, Elev. 5,500; Milepost 364

Spring was just springing at the end of May at Craggy Gardens

A vista atop Craggy Gardens

We continued along to milepost 331, with the intention of following our directions to Linville Caverns. We ended up at the Museum of North Carolina Minerals. It's right off the ramp and since we like rocks a lot, we thought we'd take a look. What we found is a very interesting history of mining and geology in North Carolina. The museum has well kept professional installations that detail the rocks in the area. One historical display has an audio track of an interview with a miner from the area, probably done in the late 1940s as a part of the Works Progress Administration. The boys loved the gift shop; rocks were about half what we paid in a rock shop in Asheville, and they claim the museum had more interesting specimens.



Got Rocks?

Linville Caverns, recommended by a friend, was next. I wouldn't normally say I'd like to go to a cave, but I'm glad we went. In 1822, people noticed trout swimming in and out of the mountain. They discovered upon further inspection, that the mountain contained caverns made of limestone. The tour takes you inside the caverns (a constant, yet sometimes drippy 52 degrees). www.linvillecaverns.com   We learned all about stalactites and stalagmites. Probably the best part of the tour was having the lights out for a few moments. The kids liked the pitch black so much that they asked for it to be dark a second time. While we didn't get to see any of the bats that live in the caverns, we did learn that some of the bats at Linville have White-Nose Syndrome, which is affecting bat colonies all over the U.S.