Day 52 - From Skyline Drive To The Blue Ridge Parkway, It Ended With The Dreaded Loose Gravel

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Since we arrived at the hotel late from our Cass Scenic Railroad train ride yesterday, we were both tired when we awoke this morning. We had originally planned on staying last night back in Luray and resuming our ride down Skyline Drive where we left off, but the late ending of the train ride had us stay in Harrisonburg some 40 miles away. So our first hour this morning was spent just getting back to Luray to pick up where we left off. It did give us the opportunity for that one last ride up and over the mountain on US-211E.

It's about 400 miles from Luray to Asheville, NC on what starts out as Skyline Drive while it's in Shenandoah National Park and turns into Blue Ridge Parkway when it leaves. We decided to split the trip into 2 days with a stop overnight in Roanoke, VA. So we re-entered Shenandoah National park at the Thornton Gap entrance in Luray and headed south. The first thing we encountered was the Mary's Rock Tunnel. Of course we had to stop and take pictures. Tunnels are always great! We just kept on heading south stopping at various scenic overlooks and taking pictures along the way until we reached the second Visitors Center at Big Meadows.

There's not really a lot to do in Shenandoah that doesn't involve a long, committed hike, other than visiting the many scenic overlooks, so we decided that we had to do a couple of short hikes. So we checked with the ranger in the Big Meadows Visitors Center and got a few suggestions. There are a few waterfalls in the park, but the most popular, by far, is the Dark Hollow Falls. Since I had just bought a Shenandoah National Park t-shirt with a picture of Dark Hollow Falls on the front, I felt obliged to visit the place on the t-shirt before I could wear it.

Unfortunately, the relatively short path to the falls was closed for repair, but if we still wanted to see the falls, we could ride back up Skyline Drive a couple of miles and hike a couple of miles down a fire road and reconnect with the Dark Hollow Falls trail after the damaged section. That worked for us, and off we went for a little hike. It was an easy hike, downhill most of the way on a gravel fire road. But the road wasn't too steep, so the walk back wasn't too bad.

When we reached Dark Hollow Falls, it was a little smaller than we expected, and didn't really look like the picture on the t-shirt. As we talked to an older guy in a Harley shirt that we met hiking down, he said that the small waterfall was part of Dark Hollow Falls, but he pointed out a steep trail up the side of the mountain that he promised would lead us to the upper falls and a much better view. So we hiked up the steep trail, and sure enough, the view was much better. The upper falls were great, so we took a bunch of pictures and a few videos.

By the time we were back to the bike in the parking lot, we had covered over 4 miles and were ready to hit the snack bar for some lunch. After lunch, we headed back up the parking lot road for a short hike behind the campground to a place called Black Rock. Basically, it's just a huge rock outcropping on the side of the mountain that we could climb onto and get a panoramic view of the valley below. The pictures were great!

Before we resumed our progress south, we also made a last stop at the namesake of the Visitors Center - Big Meadows. Big Meadows is just what you would expect it to be: a big meadow. In the midst of all this mountain activity, with nothing but upward and downward slopes and heavy forestation, there is this huge, flat, open space forming a meadow as far as we can see. We stopped in the meadow to take a few pictures.

By the time we finished with the activities around the Big Meadows Visitors Center, it was about 1:00 and we were still about 180 miles from Roanoke. Even the Garmin Lady was telling us that best case arrival in Roanoke was 5:30 so we figured it was time to stop puttering around and start making up some time. So we decided to only stop if a scenic overlook was particularly good, otherwise it was time to ride!

It didn't take a lot of convincing as we had both figured out that we could see most of the views right from the bike as we rode by, and that if we stopped for a picture, most photographs of scenic overlooks looked about the same. So, off we rode, and the motorcycle riding on the remainder of Skyline Drive was awesome. Without having to stop for scenic overlooks, I could really concentrate on enjoying the ride. It was fun!

As we reached the end Shenandoah National Park and the end of Skyline Drive, the road transitioned naturally into the Blue Ridge Parkway. The first thing we noticed was the 10 mph increased speed limit. Where Skyline Drive was a maximum of 35 mph, the maximum on Blue Ridge Parkway was 45 mph. Now, while both of the roads had similar characteristics, the speed limit increase on Blue Ridge made for a better motorcycle riding experience.

We only stopped a few times on Blue Ridge, mostly at Visitors Centers to get our passports stamped. But we did stop at a couple of scenic overlooks, and there wasn’t much difference from Skyline Drive, except that almost all scenic overlooks on Skyline Drive were right at the edge of the road, and quite a number of the Blue Ridge scenic overlooks required a hike also.

As we were getting close to Roanoke, we started to see signs of road construction which normally doesn't bother us by now. But all of a sudden, we saw a big sign stating "Loose Gravel Ahead, Motorcycle and Bicycle Travel Not Advised". Great! It was getting late, and we were almost there, and now we see the dreaded "Loose Gravel" sign. We had ridden through 6 miles of loose gravel in Minnesota on our last trip, and it was not a pleasant experience. But, we were both more experienced since then, and we had lots of experience this trip on dirt roads, so we decided we would ride the loose gravel and hope for the best.

It turned out there were about 6-8 miles of loose gravel mostly at the top of one of the mountains. Most of the time, the gravel had been run on by lots of cars, so it was packed very tightly, but in some spots, it was just loose. I dropped down into second gear at about 20-25 mph and Jody sat still on the back and we made it through. It wasn't that bad, certainly no worse than some of the dirt roads earlier this trip, and much easier than some of the steel grid bridge roadways we had been on.

By this time, I was also getting concerned about gas. It looked like I would have enough to get to the hotel, but with all the ups and downs, it was hard to judge the gauge. Also we had ridden most of the day in either third or fourth gear which tends to extend the gas mileage. In the end, about 6 miles from our exit, I chickened out and left the parkway to get gas. When I looked at what it took to fill the tank, I would have had plenty to get to the hotel. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

It turns out our hotel is only a couple of miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway, so it should be easy to resume tomorrow where we left off. By the time we reached the hotel, it was after 6:30, so we decided to eat in the hotel cafe instead of heading out for dinner.

Tomorrow we will follow the Blue Ridge Parkway into Asheville, NC. We haven't been there in about 17 years, I'm sure much has changed. There is plenty to do in the area, so we plan to spend 3 nights.

256.8 Miles Today

8237.7 Miles Total

10.767 Gallons today

208.548 Gallons Total

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