Roanoke Mountain Loop — The Parkway's Only One-Way Road

The only one-way road on the entire Blue Ridge Parkway loops four miles up Roanoke Mountain to 2,161 feet. Overlooks appear every half mile. The road was built in the 1960s as a scenic detour; the National Park Service kept it one-way to reduce congestion. Roanoke grew from a town called Big Lick that the Norfolk and Western Railway chose in 1882 for its corporate headquarters and railroad shops. Within two years the town had become a city. In the 1880s the population grew by twenty-two times. The railroad built the city and the city grew around the railroad through the twentieth century until N&W moved its headquarters out in 1982. Two overlooks sit on the summit ridge. Views extend west over Roanoke city and north. At the summit, walk fifty yards to see the Roanoke Valley — the whole city in context, laid out in the valley the railroad made into Southwest Virginia's economic and cultural hub. The mountain sits two miles south of the Roanoke River and one mile east of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Access from milepost 120. Free. Closed in winter snow. The mountain was earlier called Yellow Mountain.