Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
10.
Blue Ridge Music Center
Throughoutthesummermonths,thewarmairoftheBlueRidgeMountainsechoeswiththe
sounds of outdoor summer concerts featuring old-time and contemporary mountain music.
The new Roots of American Music exhibition opened in May 2011, expanding the already
enjoyable offerings by sharing the history of mountain music in the region.
11.
Cumberland Knob
The parkway crosses the Virginia-North Carolina state line just before milepost 217 in a
rolling pastoral landscape of farms, fields, and forests. Among those who surveyed this
boundary back in 1749 was Peter Jefferson, father of our third (and, Virginia is proud to
claim, our most scholarly) president.
Just beyond the visitor center at the Cumberland Knob Recreation Area, you'll find the
Fox Hunters Paradise. Here, accompanied by the doleful baying of hounds, hunters once
gallopedthroughthewoodsbelowinpursuitoftheelusiveredfox.Thismagnificent view-
point looks out over steep tree-covered bluffs toward the gentler slopes of the Piedmont
country to the east.
12.
Doughton Park
SouthofCumberlandKnobtheparkwaycurvesgentlythroughlovelymeadowsandpasses
into blustery (especially in winter) Air Bellows Gap. Farther ahead lies the serene and
grassy Doughton Park area, where a restaurant, lodge, and campground welcome visitors.
Atdawnanddusk,deercometofeedintheserollingfields,alwaysalertandquicktobound
back into the safety of the surrounding forest. Less shy are the tuneful juncos that hop and
flit around the lodge.
13.
Jumpinoff Rocks
Another of the drive's whimsically named spots, Jumpinoff Rocks (dubbed by local folks)
lies at the end of a half-mile path fringed with trailing arbutus and cinnamonbush. Once
yougetthere,don'tjumpofftherocks;justenjoytheloftyBlueRidgeMountainpanorama.
Farther along the drive, past E. B. Jeffress Park and Deep Gap, the parkway crosses Daniel
Boone's Trace (near milepost 285), a path once scouted by the legendary frontiersman,
mountain man, and farmer himself.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search