Visitor Amenities

With your help, we will plant a row of mature trees along the hillside of the amphitheater to provide shade for concert-goers and block the sun for performers on the stage. Additionally, picnic tables will be installed to offer daytime visitors a place to enjoy a meal or take a rest after hiking one of the on-site trails. 

FUNDED! Thank you for your gifts to make the first phase of this project a reality. The work will be accomplished in two phases with the main exhibits slated for installation in the winter of 2017/2018. Additional gifts will help us accomplish phase two! The Craggy Gardens Visitor Center hosts 85,000 visitors annually. Inside the circa-1952 building, the 10-year-old faded and outdated exhibit panels will be replaced by displays that tell the story of the plants and animals in this unique and harsh high elevation environment.

FUNDED! Thank you for your gifts to make this project a reality. A crew with the American Conservation Experience has just finished most of the repairs at Craggy Flats Bald Trail during a four-week stint.

FUNDED! Thanks so much for your gifts to make this project possible. Please join us for a ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of the project at 10 a.m., October 24, at Price Campground, Loop D. Price Park Campground is one of the most visited camping areas on the Blue Ridge Parkway, with 129 tent and 68 RV sites. Your support will build a modern facility with showers and handicap-accessible restrooms.

You can give to address crucial repairs and maintenance at Flat Top Manor as well as trail work and landscape restoration for this treasure listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Update! Thanks to your support for this project, The Bluffs Restaurant will reopen in the spring of 2021! We can't thank you enough for your donations which made this revitalization possible. “The Bluffs was not just a place for a wonderful meal, it was a place where memories were made on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” said Foundation CEO Carolyn Ward. “Recreating that experience for those who fondly remember The Bluffs and those who never had a chance to visit is a perfect example of the Foundation’s mission to enhance the Parkway for everyone.”

MATCHING GIFT OPPORTUNITY! This project will complete the repaving of the one-mile loop around the lake. Youth conservation crews will help clear vegetation in preparation for the paving project. The bridge nearest the Peaks of Otter Lodge will be converted from an arched to flat span. This spot, which welcomes more than 200,000 visitors each year, will be the first complete ADA trail along the Parkway in Virginia.

Doughton Park is a beloved spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it is difficult to enjoy the picnic area here in its current run-down condition. The picnic tables and walkways date back to the 1940s and ’50s and are in severe disrepair. We will fund a rehabilitation of the area to replace tables and address crumbling stonework, flagstone walks, and fire pits.

FUNDED! There's a new bridge on Grassy Gap Trail. In the past, the crossing over Basin Creek was often difficult, with only a long, precarious log spanning the waterway for hikers. Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation by members of the Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club, a 30-foot bridge now makes the trek safer and more accessible for everyone.

FUNDED! Those who hike the section of the Mountains to Sea Trail near Blowing Rock have likely encountered the dangerous and seasonally impassible crossing at Boone Fork Creek. To remedy the problem, the Friends of the North Carolina Mountains to Sea Trail secured a grant of $200,000 to build a pedestrian bridge. The Foundation will provide a match of $50,000 for construction and engineering costs to make this trail linked to the Blue Ridge Parkway a safe and enjoyable hike. Construction will begin on this project in early 2016.