UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, J. A. Krug, Secretary NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, Newton B. Drury, Director Blue Ridge Parkway is a unit of the National Park System, which is owned by the people of the United States and administered for them by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior....

Enforcement of regulations is a part of the Parkway rangers’ job, but the rangers are eager also to help you enjoy your visit. A copy of the regulations may be seen in the superintendent’s office. The regulations are for your protection and for the protection of your property—The Parkway. While on the Blue Ridge Parkway please remember the following: Fire is the forest’s greatest foe; build fires only in places provided, and be cautious generally. Drive carefully. Speed zones are posted. Not all

Blue Ridge Parkway, high road through Virginia and North Carolina, designed especially for the leisurely tourist, represents a new conception in roads. It is not an express parkway of the type built about the big cities, but a quiet way through a distinctive part of the American scene—a road intended for gypsy-like travel on the ride-awhile, stop-awhile basis. You travel the Southern Highlands, a land of forested mountains, exquisite during the flower of spring, cool in the green summer, colorfu

The four seasons are definite in the southern mountains, each with qualities which set it apart. The Parkway motor road is open the year round, but is not recommended for winter travel. Native Flame Azalea. Spring is the favorite season of many in the Blue Ridge, for nowhere is there a greater show of native flowers. In mid-April the shadblow blooms, lacy white on the hillside; but the real procession starts in early May,—pink azalea, dogwood, redbud. In mid-May the flame azalea appears like fir

Blue Ridge Parkway is meant to serve this American pleasure. In the course of a motor trip along the Parkway, plans should include a stop at one of the several recreational areas for a picnic lunch. Here comfort stations and drinking water will be found from April 15 until the first freeze, usually mid-October. In these areas we suggest a leg stretcher along an easy trail, or there are short trails leading from many of the parking overlooks to selected vantage points....

Picnic areas, ideal for the family group, include parking spaces, tables, fireplaces, drinking water, and refuse cans. These areas are designated on the maps by the Parkway emblem....

Gas stations are being constructed at Rocky Knob, The Bluffs, and Crabtree Meadows. The one at The Bluffs will be ready during the 1949 travel season. Others are located within a short distance of the Parkway on the more important State highways. At Cumberland Knob, Mile Post 219, there is a sandwich shop operated during the travel season by National Park Concessions, Inc. This company will also operate the coffee shop and lodge being built at The Bluffs, but these facilities may not be availabl

At Rocky Knob in Virginia and The Bluffs in North Carolina are trailer sites and campgrounds. There you will find tent platforms, fireplaces, garbage receptacles, drinking water, and comfort stations. Camping supplies are not available. Length of stay is not limited. Highland Pastures, Rocky Knob, Virginia....

Trail systems have been developed in the Parkway recreational areas. At The Bluffs there are more than 20 miles of foot trails, and in each of the other areas from 3 to 5 miles. Grades are easy and can be walked comfortably....

The Parkway opens to you a photogenic and paintable country. Flowers, mountains, valleys, streams, wildlife, and the hill farms are fine subjects....

This is trout country. Rainbow and brook trout haunt many streams up and down the Parkway. State licenses are required. Outside the Parkway boundary State laws apply. Within the Parkway boundary special regulations, covering creel limit, bait, and season, prevail. The season in North Carolina lasts from April 15 through August 31, and in Virginia from April 20 through July 31....

Facilities for this type of active sport are not provided on the lands of Blue Ridge Parkway, but the Parkway is a convenient way to reach resort areas where there are fine mountain golf courses, tennis courts, saddle horses, lakes, and swimming pools. Several State areas and forests and portions of the national forests, through which the Parkway winds, have many recreational developments within easy reach of the Parkway....

Along paved sections of the Parkway you will observe numbered mile posts. Zero marker is at Rockfish Gap just south of Shenandoah National Park, and each mile is numbered progressively southwestward on the Parkway. Thus each Parkway mile is identified by a specific number....

Interpretive signs carrying the squirrel gun and powder horn symbol will be found at various points along the Parkway where there is a legend, old building, or place of scientific interest....

At the entrance to each of the recreational areas along the Parkway you will find a large carved wooden sign bearing the Parkway emblem. This is also the designation used on the maps herein to locate the recreational areas now ready for use. Elias Mabry Mill on the Parkway, Virginia....

North of the James River the Parkway winds through large sections of the George Washington National Forest. This scenic route is very spectacular where it crosses the high cliff sections of Humpback Mountain. Purple rhododendron blooms here in early June. Through this region, too, are glimpses of isolated mountain farm groups, as well as distant views to the fertile “bread basket of the Confederacy” in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The Parkway is paved from Rockfish Gap south for nearly 46

From Adney Gap (19 miles south of Roanoke by way of U S 221) the Parkway is paved south to the State Line and beyond to Deep Gap near Boone and Blowing Rock. This section of Parkway through lower Virginia is notable for its pictures of mountain farming. The Blue Ridge here is a high rolling plateau which breaks in a sharp escarpment toward the east and the lower Piedmont. The Parkway generally follows the crest, which is the water divide between Atlantic and Gulf drainage, affording occasional f

The northerly 60 miles shown finished on the map facing this page, like the section north toward Roanoke, thread a country remarkable for its mountain fields and pastures; but the country is more rugged, the Blue Ridge becoming more defined and higher. It is completed as to landscaping between the State Line and The Bluffs. A sandwich shop is open at Cumberland Knob. Sixty miles of Parkway are available southward from Linville. From Deep Gap, near Boone, it is not far to Blowing Rock and Linvill

The Appalachian Trail follows the North Carolina-Tennessee State Line, along the crest of the Smokies, for a total distance of approximately 70 miles in this park, from its eastern terminus at Davenport Gap to its Western terminus at Deals Gap. The trans-mountain highway (Tenn. No. 71, N. C. No. 107) intersects this trail at its approximate half-way point at Newfound Gap. The eastern section of the trail is a graded four-foot standard horse trail. The western section is an ungraded, brushed-out,

There are no Government-operated cabins nor lodging accommodations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Under the policy approved by the Secretary of the Interior, tourist facilities within the boundaries of this park are limited to automobile campgrounds and picnic areas. Cabins and lodging accommodations may be obtained in any of the towns surrounding the park, and such information may be obtained from the Chambers of Commerce of such cities. The only accommodations inside the park are