August 2012

Stanley Abbott, a young-faced Cornell graduate from New England, took on the design of the Blue Ridge Parkway while still in his 20s, hired as the parkway’s acting superintendent and first resident landscape architect in 1936.

Blue Ridge Parkway know the immediate draw: the views. But dig deeper and you’ll find the infamous mountains are rich with Civil War history as intriguing as the scenery.

469 miles winding along the ridgelines of two states, the Blue Ridge Parkway spans not only mountain ranges and county lines, but also decades in time.

There are birds, and then there are birds - guaranteed head turners. An adult bald eagle, for instance: head and tail gleaming white as fresh-fallen snow on a bright winter morning; impossibly long, dark wings held flat as a board.