Picture shows - the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains!

More pics can be seen in the Gallery; Just click on 'Gallery' above then the album 'Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia'

Driving west from Deltaville our route took us inland to Charlotteville and up to join the Blue Ridge Parkway at Roanoke. From there we continued north to the end of the Parkway and onto Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park. We'd booked hotels, B&B's and mountain lodges along the route, planning it so that we didn't have to drive great distances in a day and we had plenty of time for a walking and sightseeing. We even managed to fit in a morning's paddle in kayaks on the St James River. It was cooler in the mountains - not a lot but at least we had air-con in the car!


Early morning paddle on the St James River

The Parkway itself is quite a narrow two-way road with a 40mph speed limit. As the name suggests it winds along the top of the Blue Mountain ridge. The whole area is a National Park and completely undeveloped; accommodation is limited to a couple of mountain lodges on the Ridge or driving down off the ridge to stay in one of the small towns in the foothills.

The scenery is breathtaking and there are numerous lay-bys to pull over and enjoy the views. At one such lay-by we were fortunate enough to see a Black Bear happily crashing about in the undergrowth and feeding on wild berries just below the Parkway verge.


Black Bear

Skyline Drive continues north from the end of the Parkway and is even more winding. There is a small charge for entering this National Park - This stretch has a 30mph speed limit which is great because it gave us time to really appreciate the fantastic scenery.



Skyline Drive

Eventually we descended into the Shenandoah Valley, it had been a great trip with beautiful vistas, lots of wildlife and some great country music.

We drove to Washington and flew to Toronto for a week-long stay with Kit's brother Peter and sister-in-law Pat. So good to be able to see them for the second year running!

Finally home to the UK and the last of the English summer.