Blue Ridge Parkway - Skyline Drive Bike Tour

While riding the parkways, we cover a distance of 625 miles, and all the climbing you will ever want (61K+ ft) while being in the USA. Please know there is very little of flat surface on these parkways. The road surfaces are good, there are no commercial vehicles allowed and there are no billboards or even stoplights. The numerous overlooks show many different viewpoints and incredible scenery: mountains, ridges, and trees as far as the eye can see.

This roadway construction was started in the late 1930’s and was 99.8% completed in 1966. The final 7.7 miles was finally completed in 1987. The BRP was designed to connect the Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It runs mostly along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is part of the Appalachian Mountains. It was built by contractors working with federal contracts, and help from members of the Civilian Conservation Corp.

In our new tour format and itinerary, we have added a few exceptional new stopovers such as the Inn at Little Switzerland, Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock and High Meadows Lodge in Sparta, NC, and Iris Inn where the Blue Ridge Parkway meets Skyline Drive. Our new lodging boasts exceptional food and great nearby amenities as well as nicely appointed rooms. We have kept the National Park Lodges of Pisgah, Peaks of Otter, and Big Meadows as well as our lodging in the great small towns of Lexington and Floyd.

On our late Summer/Fall edition of this tour, we start the adventure at the entrance to the Smoky Mountains National Park and immediately head northbound on the BRP. Our first day is one of the hardest, with an 11-mile climb to the highest point of the motor road before we gear down at the beautiful Pisgah Lodge for the evening. The Graveyard Falls are a highlight the following day as well as a nice 15-mile descent into the beautiful upscale town of Asheville, NC.

We stay on the Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia for 469 miles, pass through 27 tunnels, and ride the most photographed site in NC — the Linn Cove Viaduct. Grab the opportunity to stop at some of the more than 200 Roadside Overlooks.

Skyline Drive will pick up where the Blue Ridge Parkway begins at mile marker zero in Waynesboro, VA. The Skyline Drive is 105 miles and we split this into two days of riding the ridgeline in Shenandoah National Park. We will continue to see some amazing scenery from a myriad of vistas and overlooks. We stay in our final National Park Lodge before making our way to the northern terminus in Front Royal, VA.