Blue Ridge Parkway Trip – Day 1: Hitting The Road

We traveled the entirety of the Blue Ridge Parkway, also known as America’s Highway that run from Virginia to Cherokee, North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkway is 469 miles that highlights some of the state’s most scenic views, with the highest mountain ranges being in North Carolina.

Day 1: Hitting the Road!

Day 2: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Day 3: Peaks of Otter

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Day 4: Mabry Mill  and Mount Airy, Birthplace of Andy Griffith

Lots more of our Blue Ridge Parkway travel destinations here!

This past Sunday Lover Boy, the kids, the dogs and I packed up and headed towards Virginia to the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had planned on driving the entire Parkway from top to bottom, 469 miles. We chose to go this time of year to catch a glimpse of the remarkable peak foliage.

Before we took off we had a map of the Parkway printed and laminated for Little Finch to follow along the trip with. She was so excited! She kept telling us that we were going to “turn right, go four miles and go to the water and then to the grass then turn left and get to the camping place”. It was so cute! We plan on doing this for all of our trips to come.

Here’s the car all loaded up! Although I have an extended SUV we always travel like this. The 3rd row of seats are laid down for the dogs, their huge bed and ginormous food/water bowl. This trip the cooler and hiking kid backpack carrier was also back there. We use a hitch rack to hold Rubbermaid containers filled with our clothes and food/camping supplies (or at other times of the year, Christmas presents!) The roof top carrier was loaded with our sleeping bags, tent, etc. When you travel with 4 people and 3 dogs you tend to need quite a bit of stuff. 🙂

We stayed our first night in Afton, VA and headed to Charlottesville, VA in the morning to visit Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

p.s. We took a total of 1,415 pictures on this trip…so be prepared!

8 Comments

  1. Sounds like a fun trip. We are visiting Charlottesville, VA in just a few weeks.

    1. Emily that is so neat! What are you guys planning on doing there? Hope you have a great time!!!

  2. I am so impressed with this trip! Just seeing your vehicle loaded down is crazy! Sounds like you had a good time!

    1. Thanks! haha!! That’s what we always look like on our road trips! We had a blast! (just need to finish going through several hundred more photos now!)

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