Talk:Blue Ridge Parkway

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[edit] Changes needed.

I have been working on a project for Google Earth users that would help travelers that want to follow the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most travel programs or websites (including GE and Mapquest) do not have a way to make a road the destination. They attempt to route via quicker or shorter roads. So instead of following the parkway, the programs would take you off the route, perhaps onto nearby freeways.

My objective was a complete list of Overlooks, Visitor Centers, Peaks, Gaps, and other related areas of interest like Museums. I think my list of peaks and gaps is relatively complete. However, there where many of the others that were poorly listed. I found roads that were probably visitor centers or overlooks, but no name for the area. With many of the non-park run sites of interest, I could not find out where they where physically. They (every source I looked at, including the museum's site and Wikipedia) would quote a mile marker, but no hi-res maps where shown. (The exception was one case that only showed the grounds of the musuem -- not the location of the museum.)

I was left attempting to estimate the location by counting the miles with DeLorme Street Atlas USA Deluxe (from 2002). That allowed me to put a placemark at the lat/lon where I thought the object might be. I might have done better with that if I had some high-res imagery of the roads. However, very little of the parkway is hi-res in GE. The road was visible -- barely. Anything else might have been only a patch of bare rock.

Ways Wikipedia could have helped:

  • Quote the lat/lon and not just the mile marker -- at least in the detail page mentioned next.
  • Put detailed pages in for each area of interest -- at least the overlooks and visitor centers.
  • Link to the detail pages when the area of interest is named after a person. Have that page link to the person.

My apologies if I am having problems being understood. I only recently found Wikipedia and do not understand parts like the Village Pump or IRC. I rarely use chat systems. --Will 06:21, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Understood, and a good idea, though I don't know how practical it will be to get the latitude and longitude for use in the article. SchuminWeb (Talk) 11:24, 21 March 2006 (UTC)


If it helps, I have a KMZ file attached to the post Ridge Parkway Travel Info. If you have Google Earth installed, you will have a set of Lat/Lon values. I do not know how accurate I got. I also could not name many of the stops I saw.

What I was hoping for was that someone would take a GPS along the parkway and record each POI. The record would need to include not just the location, but the name, type, and what was found there (hiking trails, RV parking, etc). --Will 20:22, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Better maps now available but even better desired

When I first found this article, the maps were scanned copies of paper maps. The page now links to a National Park Service site that has a better map. However, I do have reservations about the new map. I had already found this map and used it in my search.

  • The map is a PDF and takes a long time to download in Firefox with a dial-up connection. During this time, if you plan to view the file inside Firefox, that window (and probably all of Firefox) is non-responsive.
  • The map omits some tunnels -- even in areas that have few tunnels with little clutter to hide the tunnel.
  • The map is imprecise in terms of accuracy. You will locate things on the parkway within 20-30 miles, but that is it. As for items off the parkway, find another map before attempting to go there.

--Will 22:03, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Parkway schematic change from PNG to JPG

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't PNG be the "more correct" form for this image? It seems that since it's a fairly simple black-and-white image that PNG would be the more proper fit, so that we don't have to deal with the "artifacts" left by JPEG files.

My gut reaction is to change it back to PNG for that reason, but I'm interested to hear what others think first. SchuminWeb (Talk) 21:48, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

PNG indeed is more appropriate for black-and-white drawings. I don't see any reason for switching to JPG, so if you want to follow your guts and revert to PNG, that's all right with me. --DrTorstenHenning 08:49, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
I reverted, but then felt it prudent to revert back, because the PNG is showing up as a narrow line, vs. a graphic. Anyone know why? SchuminWeb (Talk) 20:59, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
If you check the history, you'll see that I originally uploaded it as PNG but had the same trouble. So I switched to jpeg so at least we could all see the thumbnail. If you can figure out how to make the thumb work right, PNG would be preferable for me as well. Daderot 01:19, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copying from the brochure (highlights section)

At the beginning of the highlights section, it says:

(Much of this information comes from the official Blue Ridge Parkway map GPO:2003-496-196/40572 Reprint 2004)

"Comes from?" It should be "is directly copied from." That section needs to be completely redone. I'd do it, but all I have to work from is the same map that the person copied from in the first place. Cooljeanius 14:55, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] this location listed as highest point

mt mitchel is considered part of the parkway.mt mitchel is almost 6700" ft and you said, Richland Balsam Mountain is the highest point on the parkway at,6047 ft, or the 2005 parkway map listed it as the highest point, but mt mitchel is the highest point, and it is still operated by the parkway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.150.187.173 (talk) 01:32, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Mount Mitchell is not a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a North Carolina state park unit, not under parkway (National Park Service) administration. It's accessible by a spur road from the parkway, but that spur leaves the parkway right-of-way and enters state lands. Richland Balsam Mountain is the highest point on the parkway itself.Spewey 03:24, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
I see your point, but I think I disagree - simply because the only access to Mount Mitchell State Park is from the Blue Ridge Parkway. There's simply no other way to get there. The BRP isn't an access road to the park, it's the access road to the park. To my mind, that makes it a de facto part of the parkway, even if it isn't technically operated and maintained by the same government entity. 'Card 04:59, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

The folks at the Parkway list Richland Balsam as the highest point, so we should go with that methinks. Mt. Mitchell is clearly owned and operated by the state of North Carolina, and should not be considered a part of the Parkway. The access road to the top of the mountain is a spur off the Parkway, but it was constructed after the state checked in with the National Park Service first. ThirstyPapist (talk) 00:41, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] external links

The article has over a dozen external links. What's up with this? Can we reduce this to three? 842U (talk) 14:42, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Looks like you did fairly well. Well played! SchuminWeb (Talk) 19:11, 22 February 2008 (UTC)