One of the premier tourist attractions of the eastern United States, the Blue Ridge Parkway stretches from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in western North Carolina. This volume relates the author’s one-of-a-kind back packing trip along the 469-mile road, along with his observations and recollections regarding the parkway, the most visited unit of the National Park Service. Beginning with his experience as a summer college intern, the book also covers the twelve years he spent working as a Blue Ridge Parkway park ranger. Anecdotal history and accounts from some of the parkway’s earliest rangers complete this tale of one of our country’s national treasures.