George and Charlie Review the BRP Ride

OK, let’s debrief. Charlie and I just got off the Blue Ridge Parkway and we want to capture our thoughts about that leg of the trip before we forget stuff. You know how that goes…

Parkway length

The BRP is 470 miles long. How much time should you give that? Our answer is a resounding…yes. We spent four days on the Parkway. You could definitely spend more. You could do less, and still drive it end to end, but you wouldn’t be doing much stopping on that trip. If your goal is simply to ride the BRP end to end the math is easy; 470 miles divided by 45, the posted speed limit.

Get the app

A very helpful Blue Ridge Parkway app is available, and we recommend it. This will help you, a lot, by letting you know mile markers for sights along the BRP. The app is a great planning tool.

Getting gas

As we researched the BRP SO many people were talking about the lack of gas availability on the Parkway. This is true, in that there aren’t any gas stations right on the BRP. But when we jumped off the Parkway to get to our hotels it was very easy to gas up. For our daily range, topping off the tanks in the morning got us to our evening destination.

Places to stay

There are lots of places to stay off the Parkway. We had reservations for each night. At this time of year, late September, traffic was so light we could have found hotels as we went. Though on a bike, with limited cell reception, I’d still lean toward having reservations before starting the trip.

Be sure to catch all the videos from the complete Blue Ridge Parkway trip.