#Parkway March 19

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March 2026 marks the 75th consecutive month that Jeff Neelon, Jaclyn Donovan, and I have completed a 30-Day Coach4aday Challenge. For this milestone month, we’ve chosen to focus on teaching. Each day for 30 days, we will share one lesson, principle, or insight gained from the previous 74 challenges—calling it the 30-Day Coach4aday Teach It Challenge. For each of us we believe that our own personal growth increases when we share it.

When you live in North Carolina, people often ask what a visitor should see. For me it’s always the Outer Banks and a drive along the Blue Ridge PARKWAY.

The parkway is a route that extends 469 miles through the Virginia and North Carolina mountains, the Blue Ridge PARKWAY has remained what historian William Powell describes as a travel experience “never to be forgotten”.  Its elevation goes from 680 feet to over 6,000 along its route.

“Teach It” 30 Day Challenge Guidelines

In past challenges, we invited others to join us, though participation has been limited. This month, the three of us will return to January 2020—the very beginning—and move forward to the present, reflecting along the way and sharing a life lesson or insight from any month with one another.

Here is how we will do it.

1. Identify the principle, insight, or lesson from a previous 30-Day Challenge-identify the Challenge also.
2. Teach that lesson to each of us.
3. Share the conversation by posting on social media with the hashtag #Coach4adayChallenge

Day 19-Blue Ridge Parkway

Colonel Joseph Hyde Pratt first suggested the parkway in 1912, but the complete mountain highway was not finished until 1987. 

Pratt who headed the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey in the 1910s wanted the road—approximately 350 miles–to transverse through the Appalachian mountains, beginning in Marion, Virginia, and ending in Cornelia, Georgia.

As a public road free of industrial development and a park showcasing mountain views of the Blue Ridge, the parkway remains one of western North Carolina’s most popular tourist destinations and cultural attractions. According to the National Park Service, the first step in construction occurred on September 11, 1935, when workers started on a small part of the road near the Cumberland Gap.

Today the number of visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway just in North Carolina approaches close to 10 million.

Parkway Vistas for Autumn Leaves

One of the popular things to do is to drive on the Parkway in the fall. If you are planning a trip here is a lesson on three places with great views.

1. Craggy Gardens (MP 364–367) — high-elevation rhododendron and open balds with sweeping panoramic views; peak color usually late October.
2. Graveyard Fields (MP 418) — open meadow, waterfalls, and mixed forest for vibrant mid- to late-October color; several short hikes and overlooks.
3. Waterrock Knob (MP 451) — roadside summit overlook with 360° views of layered ridges and brilliant fall hues; best from mid- to late October.