Education and Outreach

By lending their time and talents, volunteers make the Blue Ridge Parkway a better and more beautiful place for everyone. With a gift, you can provide the supplies, training, and tools volunteers need to repair, rejuvenate, and improve multiple sites along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

You can give eight young adults a once-in-a-lifetime outdoor experience. Through a collaboration with the Conservation Corps of North Carolina, your gift will provide trail restoration training and additional support for an eight-person crew. The team will spend 14 weeks rehabbing the Tanawha Trail near Julian Price Memorial Park.

The Blue Ridge Parkway’s history is often wrapped up in what came before the creation of the park. The documentary, Rock Castle Home, by Duke University Professor Charles Thompson Jr., shares the stories of descendants of a 1930s mountain community in Virginia. The film is a deep chronicle of one mountain hollow and its people.

Funded! Thanks to donor support, this project is fully funded. You can still make an impact at Doughton Park. Learn more.

No matter where you are, webcams can keep you connected to the Blue Ridge Parkway. To provide park views year-round, we are asking for your support to fund the installation of state-of-the-art webcameras, like the unit at The Bluffs Restaurant, at additional key locations along the scenic route.  Our goal for this project is $20,000. Please donate today! Give  

As the National Park Service faces an astonishing price tag to repair all aspects of the Blue Ridge Parkway, coupled with impending budget constraints, care of the trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, and overlooks are falling to the bottom of the long list of priorities. That means, the places you enjoy nature on the Parkway desperately need your help!

Craggy Gardens, known for its fantastic long-range views, is one of the most visited destinations on the Parkway. Your gift will create outdoor exhibits near the visitor center to provide directions and highlight the diverse natural resources of the high-elevation site.

Printed annually, the Blue Ridge Parkway Outdoor Activity Guide features trail maps, safety information, and adventure opportunities. It is an essential guide to a well-planned Parkway excursion. With your support, the guide will be updated with new maps and information and made available by the National Park Service at visitor centers for free.

The Waterrock Knob Visitor Center near Cherokee, North Carolina, occupies a unique position on the Blue Ridge Parkway, having the potential to be either the first or last stop for travelers. With the help of your donation, the National Park Service will install new exhibits to replace the current time-worn displays that feature outdated information. The new exhibits will inform visitors about:

Our Kids in Parks program got its start in 2009 with the opening of the first TRACK Trail at the Asheville Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Today, there are five trails along the route that engage children and their families with the outdoors through activity brochures. You can expand these adventures for future land stewards by supporting the creation of new experiences at two fascinating Parkway sites in Virginia: the James River and Rocky Knob/Mabry Mill.