On the Blue Ridge Parkway for approxmently two hundred forty and some odd miles of travel this past Friday. I've never witnessed the volume of people & traffic in the last 25Yrs of our occasional usage. Using Mount Mitchell as an example one could hardly find a place to park at the overlook and Grandfather mountain was wall to wall vehicles and people. The same conditions thru out our drive in regards traffic volume and people. We finally exited at Deep Gap U.S. Route 421. People apparently have had it with the stay at home mandates!

this is the time of year for the Parkway

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
this is the time of year for the Parkway

Yes time of the year but in the previous twenty-five and some odd years its never been like this in regards to traffic/masses of people.

240+ miles at 35 - 45 mph? What a trooper!

It is a beautiful ride, but long and SLOW! Did part of it on motorcycle a few years ago.

Tourist traffic has been far more noticeable in central Colorado than in previous years.

I believe it isn't that people merely don't want to stay home, but that driving around the country avoids the restrictions and dangers of the other things we used to do more commonly.

As much as I love Skyline Drive in VA and the Blue Ridge Parkway in Va and NC, I try to avoid them this time of year. We're entering foliage season and these roads can get packed.

If you are in Virginia, US250 between Staunton and Monterey is beautiful. The switchbacks through the mountains are fun, too. Much of it goes through the George Washington Nat'l Forest and there are some good wilderness areas and hiking trails in the area.

quote:

Originally posted by lowflash:

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
this is the time of year for the Parkway

Yes time of the year but in the previous twenty-five and some odd years its never been like this in regards to traffic/masses of people.

A ton of people that would be doing International vacations right now, aren't. Many of those people are doing vacations inside of the U.S. because that's all they can do with the current foreign country, flying, and cruise ship restrictions/issues. I was in St. Augustine this weekend. It was absolutely packed, every hotel full, all of the tourist spots completely full, and no real reason.

I have noticed the same basic phenomenon since the Covid related stupidly came about, especially early on when everything was closed. People just want to get out and do stuff. And as for the Parkway, it always got crazy at leaf change time in the 4 years I worked there.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
240+ miles at 35 - 45 mph? What a trooper!

It is a beautiful ride, but long and SLOW! Did part of it on motorcycle a few years ago.

I've been riding the BRP on motorcycles for years and I don't find it slow? I typically cruise it between 55-60mph but gas it a bit more for fun around the corners, then back to 60mph. It's easy to dart around the slower vehicles you come upon when on a motorcycle. And there's not a stop sign, or traffic light the entire 500 miles to slow you down.

Leaf peepers & folks avoiding the pandemic population is a sure formula for Congestion

We live just off the Parkway in VA and try not to drive on it during the weekend. We try and play hookey during the week and drive down to Mabry Mills for a great home cooked breakfast of buck wheat pancakes and eggs!
YUM..

There are still a lot of people staying at home and choosing to not go back to work. What else are they going to do?

It's the same here in the Northeast - volumes of hikers and leaf peepers that I have not seen in the 30+ years I have lived here.