Did you know that one of the most photographed sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway is right here in Alleghany County? Of course you did.
There are many scenic vistas here, but the little stretch of road at Grassy Gap draws photographers like a magnet.
The gentle, sloping curves, the rugged rail fences, the pastures and the pines make for a lovely landscape that artists have tried to capture for many years.

From Blue Ridge Harvest A Region’s Folklife in Photographs by the American Folklife Center at the US Library of Congress.
A state issued driver’s handbook from 1953, now in the collection of the N.C. Historic Sites.
More info, at NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.
Public domain image from the new web site NPGallery.nps.gov:
Photographers in Grassy Gap.
Description: Section 2-C, Milepost 243.7, Blue Ridge Parkway
Publisher: U.S. National Park Service
Copyrighted photo from the Blue Ridge Parkway Association web site:
“Renew your senses amid this landscape of open meadows. Doughton Park is one of the best places along the Blue Ridge Parkway to view white-tailed deer, raccoons, red and grey foxes, and bobcats.
Flowers burst on the scene in late spring and create a spectacular show as flame azalea and rhododendron bloom.”
The official BRP poster at National-Park-Posters.com.
A northward view of good old Grassy Gap.
“The Blue Ridge Parkway Poster is an original work by Robert Decker and features a stretch of the iconic roadway in the Appalachian Highlands. Each print is numbered, dated and signed by the artist.”
Another view looking north when the hills were treeless.
Copyright ©National Park Concessions, Inc., Mammoth Cave, KY. Photo by Ray Scott.
A more modern copy of the Ray Scott image, above, made by Jeff Halsey for the Historical Society, August 22, 2010.