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Fun Ahead: Return of the Great American Road Trip
Blue Byways
Looping through Appalachia on a four-state spin
By Neal Thompson


	Byway to heaven: a side road exploring Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains (S. Solum/PhotoLink)

I WAS 14 WHEN BY DAD RUMBLED HOME with a Vietnam-era Army ambulance and a plan to take our annual summer road trip to a higher metaphysical level. He converted the rear of the rig into a camper and we headed west—at a top speed of 52 miles per hour—from New Jersey. My brother and I, mortified at first, came to take pride in the crowds that our conveyance, with big red crosses on each side, drew at every stop—the Badlands, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon. It was the most memorable vacation of my childhood. Now I have sons of my own: Sean, five, and Leo, three. While I'm not quite ready to buy a surplus military vehicle, I felt it was time to expose my boys to the beauty of the road trip. So, like Dad would have, I mapped out a five-day route along green-dotted scenic highways through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, and we set off by minivan on a 900-mile, four-state loop crisscrossing the Appalachian Trail.

Blue Byways: The Details

To get the goods on the mileage, directions, stops, and stays of Blue Byways CLICK HERE.

Day 1>>Asheville, North Carolina-Damascus, Virginia
We get under way in the funky town of Asheville, driving north into Tennessee and cutting east into the dense pines and the undulating hills of Cherokee National Forest. Curvy two-lane Carter County 133 gives us a taste of the Southern back roads yet to come: horse farms, tobacco drying in the sun, tiny clapboard churches, antique shops, country cookin' joints, the occasional Confederate flag, and a bumper sticker proclaiming that "Charlton Heston Is My President."

Descending through a dark forest into Virginia, we pass through a tunnel cut into a craggy rock ridge. Damascus, known for its annual Appalachian Trail Days Festival, is sliced by the trail and sits beneath 5,729-foot Mount Rogers, Virginia's highest peak. My wife, Mary, and I rent bikes (with kiddie seats), and take a shuttle 14 miles up the Virginia Creeper Trail, an old railroad bed. The gentle grade rolls us past waterfalls and wildflowers, over trestles and bridges, and back down into town. On the main street we discover The Maples B&B, a century-old home converted to an inn with some of the only strong coffee in town.

Day 2>>DamascusÐSeebert, West Virginia
An early start puts us in Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech and a hub for outdoor enthusiasts, by breakfast. I once worked in Blacksburg, and on Saturday afternoons loved tubing down the New River. Since our boys are too young for that, we drive 20 minutes west and stop for an easy 3.8-mile hike up the Cascades National Recreation Trail to see Little Stony Creek take a 66-foot plunge at one of the region's surfeit of waterfalls.

We cross into West Virginia late in the afternoon, and along swervy U.S. 219 the boys battle a little car sickness. That's quickly forgotten when we reach our wood-paneled cabin, one of three run by Greenbrier River Cabins that sit beside the 75-mile Greenbrier River Trail. I take a short solo bike ride before we crank up a fire in the wood stove and grill burgers on the back deck overlooking the wide and rocky river.

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