The Times They Are A-Changin’ — Part I
From Blue Ridge Country (October 30, 2010)
Can Blue Ridge Parkway amenities — many built in the 1940s and '50s — meet today's travelers’ needs? And even if the parkway wanted to upgrade, could it be done?
A final picnic at the end of a camping trip. That’s what the Hatley family was enjoying at Crabtree Falls Picnic Area on an August Sunday afternoon before beginning the long drive home to Albemarle, near Charlotte. Most of the clan was there: David and Janie Hatley, three of their four daughters, two with their spouses, one with her fiancé, and four of the grandchildren. The summer camping vacation is a seven- or eight-year-old family tradition. At Carolina Hemlocks, not far from the parkway, they tube and swim in the South Toe River, make forays to local gem mines, and savor some relaxing down-time together.
“Our family has a great appreciation for the outdoors,” Janie Hatley says, as she begins screwing the tops back on jars, and putting away the picnic things. “We come to the same place every year and travel part of the parkway on the way home.”
An even larger family group has covered several nearby picnic tables with plastic tablecloths and laid out a terrific spread: ham, chicken, chicken pie, mashed potatoes, potato salad, macaroni, slaw, green beans, tomatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs, pickles and soft drinks. Patsy Gouge, her three children and their spouses, five grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren had driven up from their homes in the South Toe Valley after church.
“We’ve done this for years, at least once a summer,” Mrs. Gouge says. “We used to do it more often, but everybody’s busy. We always cook too much; we could have twice as many people, and still have too much. We like it here. It’s open, and the kids can run and play. We’ll have another picnic here in October. Sometimes we come up and cook steaks for supper too. We drove up after the ice storm last winter, just to see what it looked like. There was lots of damage — a tree had come down across one of the picnic tables. It was a mess, but they’ve done a good job cleaning it up.”
At a table tucked between towering rosebay rhododendrons, Steve and Pam Bailey were having a bite to eat at the end of a motorcycle ride from their Burnsville home. The Baileys make frequent use of the parkway: to picnic, hike, and to ride — to Linville Falls or the Viaduct, occasionally into Asheville. Parkway picnic areas rate high with them because “there’s no charge and they’re not crowded. We’re not far from home, yet it gives us a break away from work and people.” When their children were young, the family took parkway camping trips. Bailey, who lost his longtime job when a local furniture factory closed, went back to school and hopes to land fulltime work as a social studies teacher.
“If hard times continue,” he predicts, “people will take another look at things like this.”
Parkway campground coordinator Theresa Lovelace thinks people already have. Tent (rather than RV) camping has increased in the last couple of years, “probably because of the economy,” she says. Part of the occupancy increase appears due to the parkway’s decision in 2004 to join the National Recreation Reservation Service (recreation.gov), which allows some campsites to be reserved and appears particularly appreciated by visitors who are traveling long distances and making their vacation plans well in advance.
The online reservation system is being phased in gradually: It’s now in place at four of the parkway’s nine campgrounds (Peaks of Otter, Julian Price, Linville Falls and Mt. Pisgah). Rocky Knob will be added in 2011, and Doughton Park in 2012. (Only 40 percent of spaces at participating campgrounds are available by reservation; the rest continue to be rented on a first-come, first-served basis.)
Old Facilities, Two Publics
Antiquated by modern standards, parkway campgrounds were built in the 1940s and 1950s, and were state-of-the-art.
“Showers weren’t standard at campgrounds then, and the concept of large recreational vehicles wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” says parkway director of maintenance Mike Molling. Although some travelers grumble when they discover that there are no showers (except at Mt. Pisgah, where two comfort stations have been retrofitted with them), electrical hookups or other amenities that are now standard at commercial campgrounds, “I don’t necessarily think that we should be competing with them,” he says. “Our campgrounds give people a glimpse of how things were 60 years ago. They aren’t overcrowded; they provide a casual environment.”
“We have two publics, at a minimum,” says Gary Johnson, parkway chief planner and landscape architect. “We have those who like rustic campgrounds and those who don’t. People want more creature comforts now, and there is an incredible lag time in the National Park Service. We’ve been talking about adding showers for 30 years, but as soon as we get into that conversation, then we have to talk about whether we have enough water, drainfields and so on. Adding electrical hookups would require installation of a network of service lines in the campgrounds. We have to decide what the break-even point is. Do we have to completely redo our campground roads to accommodate large RVs, make the tent pads larger for the larger tents people now have, add showers at all campground comfort stations? What about handicap accessibility? What is the minimum investment we can make for maximum return?”
The park service has been able to upgrade sewage systems at several campgrounds within its budgetary constraints. But “asset renewal is a big ticket item,” Molling says. The parkway has applied for $9.5 million to rehabilitate the Peaks of Otter campground, but must compete for funding with other NPS facilities, first at the regional level, then at the national. The parkway won’t know until sometime next year whether its request received a favorable review; even if it is approved, work on the project won’t begin until 2015.
[to be continued…]
Hurricane Helene Update from Blue Ridge Country
Please note, the stories currently on our website were written and published prior to the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene and much of the Blue Ridge region is still recovering. Many details contained here may have changed or are no longer applicable. We urge you to verify information with individual entities in impacted areas before making any plans. If you wish to help and feel able, we would invite you to visit the link below for a list of links and resources. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the affected communities and individuals during this difficult time.
https://blueridgecountry.com/blogging/a-few-words-on-hurricane-helene/
https://blueridgecountry.com/travel/blue-ridge-parkway/blue-ridge-parkway-amenities-funding/