Picks and Pans – Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

Unlike Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway allows overnight parking in a number of their pull off spots. We spent a delightful, if slightly cold, night at Slacks overlook where we at beans and hot dogs and hung out together in the van with conversation spurred on by TableTopics (thanks Litty!).

We started out the day with this hike down to a nice little waterfall. Ian got in a bit of rock climbing and we all seemed to perk up with some morning fresh air.

Although our waterfall hike was invigorating, we were still jonesing for a little more in the pick-me-up department, so we stopped off here for some coffee. The staff were incredibly nice and directed us to our next hike, which may be my favorite so far. We did at this point, however, see a weather report and discovered that we were in for a big long stretch of rain and clouds. Yuck.

Apparently, this mountain is the northernmost border of the Cherokee Nation and was long considered the highest point in Virginia (the rock here was quarried for use in the Washington Monument!), but upon the discovery of modern surveying, Sharp Top lost it’s title. Lucky for us, it’s glory remains intact. After a pleasantly long hike, we reached the top and were greeted by a panoramic view of Virginia, complete with circling birds of prey. On the hike back down, we decided to take an alternate route, which added a bit more time to the journey, but was well worth it for the springtime in the mountains views of sprouting ferns next to dripping icicles.

Although this campground was perfectly functional, I have to give it the big thumbs down for it’s hefty $30 fee. I have a feeling that campground owners use poor, unsuspecting non-RVers like us to subsidize the services they provide for RVs. I have a hard time reconciling that I pay the same price to use the showers and fill up my Nalgene bottle that RV campers pay to empty out their crappers, run their generators and fill up their massive water tanks. Not to mention that motel rooms in this area often go for the same price! I’ll be happy to reconsider if anyone can explain this discrepancy, but I have my doubts that it’s an explainable phenomenon.