8. Blue Ridge Parkway Segment 4

Monday, July 15th - This morning we left George and Michelle's and drove the last segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Roanoke to Waynesboro, VA.  Sunny day but hazy especially on the west side of the mountains.  Apparently they get a lot of pollution from further west and it piles up in the Shenandoah Valley so the east side of the mountains is clearer then the west side.  We stopped at one of the overlooks and looked out to the east and here is what it looked liked.

At the overlook where we took this photo the Appalachian Trail passes through so just for grins we walked about 20 feet of it just so we could say we did.  You can see the trail marker right next to Pat..

Our next stop was at the Peaks of Otter.  This is an area with two large peaks, a pond, a lodge and across the parkway a restaurant.  The first photo shows Sharp Top, the second Broad Top with the lodge in the foreground and the third the pond.

This next photo was also taken at Peaks of Otter and shows Polly Wood's "Ordinary".  An "Ordinary" was the old term for what we would today call an Inn.  It was called an Ordinary as it served the ordinary needs of a traveler.  Polly was a widow who built and operated this facility from 1830 to 1850.

We had a picnic lunch right beside the stream that comes from the pond.

After lunch we hiked down to a set of cascades.  This was a tough hike as we had to go a long way down the mountain side to get to the bottom of the cascades and then we had to hike back up.  Plus which large areas of the trail were very uneven rocks and they were very wet and slippery so it made for very treacherous footing.  However, it was a beautiful site as you can see in the photos.

Then to compound things when we got to the bottom the bridge had been washed out so we had to go back up the way we had come.

This was the last section on the Blue Ridge and we stopped in Waynesboro for the night.  Tomorrow we will drive the Skyline Drive which meanders along the mountain tops through the Shenandoah National Park.