Blue Ridge Parkway driving road map

by Sidney van den Boogaard

There is no rushing here: the Blue Ridge Parkway never allows more than 45 mph, and that suits this road perfectly. Between Blowing Rock and Linville Falls it rolls for about 24 miles through forest and past overlooks around the flanks of Grandfather Mountain. The highlight is the Linn Cove Viaduct, which floats around the mountainside in a graceful curve, built from 153 precast segments and completed in 1983. Only in 1987 was this section fully finished, the very last link in the 469-mile parkway. In autumn the slopes turn red and gold. For the living room of anyone who would rather cruise than chase.

This work is part of the Petrolhead Roads collection: the world's finest driving and riding roads, from coastal routes and mountain roads to legendary ribbons of curves. Each road is drawn from the real route and finished in the same calm, graphic style, with the elevation profile and, along the bottom, the length, the road number and the facts that made the road famous.

The road is drawn from OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors) and the profile from Copernicus elevation data. A great gift for anyone who would rather drive a great road than the motorway.