A fall road trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The seemingly endless highways of America have inspired wanderlust in generations of travelers. With miles of asphalt and a stunning diversity of landscapes to explore, the nation has perfected that uniquely mellow and meandering form of travel known as “the road trip.”

Perhaps no road in the country is quite as mellow and meandering as the Blue Ridge Parkway. Set into the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, the parkway is 469 miles of poetry. It’s only two lanes wide, and the 45 mph speed limit means there is not much choice but to be mellow and take in the scenery. That scenery — sweeping vistas, high mountain lakes and dense flora — gives the parkway a starring role on seemingly every list of the top 10 drives in North America.

It’s one of only 23 roads in the country to earn an All-American Road designation from the U.S. Department of Transportation, meaning the Blue Ridge Parkway is recognized as a "destination unto itself."

The tricky part about road trips in the 21^st Century, All-American Road or not, is that phrases like “carbon footprint” and “global warming” have begun to sneak into the minds of some long-distance pleasure drivers. Add to that the volatile price of gasoline, and one might say the good ol’ American road trip is in some jeopardy.

Enter the hybrid car. With an electrical motor to assist the gas engine, and an average fuel economy around 50 miles per gallon, hybrids have about half the carbon footprint of a traditional car. As far as the hybrid car is concerned, the Blue Ridge Parkway should not be 469 miles long, but rather only 235 miles— in gasoline used and in greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Putting this theory to the test, I set out at the start of the parkway in a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. The idea was to do all 469 miles on a single tank of gas, just 12.3 gallons Averaging 50 miles per gallon, I should have been able to do the whole drive and take almost 150 miles in sightseeing detours along the way. And there are certain detours not to be missed.

“The Blue Ridge Parkway should be thought of like a string of pearls,” says Houck Medford, executive director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. “Taken as a whole, it is the largest landscape architecture project in history. But you’ll certainly want to stop and enjoy some of the pearls along the way.”

The Blue Ridge Parkway Association publishes a free guidebook detailing the pearls, like the Peaks of Otter, three mountains that form a ring around a reflective lake. Staring at the lake from the just the right angle, it’s hard to tell when you’re looking at the real tree-covered mountains, and when their reflections in the crystalline water. The guidebook also includes driving tips and seasonal information, as well as essentials like where to get gas along the route.

Hoping to avoid that gasoline aspect altogether, I topped off the tank in a small town just before the start of the parkway. The Civic features an electric motor display on the dashboard, so the driver knows when the battery is charging and when it is increasing fuel efficiency by providing electric juice to the engine. There is a hypnotic element to watching the battery charge and discharge, and experienced hybrid drivers have mastered the gentle breaking and acceleration necessary to get the most mileage from their vehicles. Beyond this unique instrumentation on the dashboard, the Civic drives just like any traditional all-gas car, a truly seamless hybrid integration.

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My own skill at coaxing a full 469 miles from one tank of gas was somewhat less than seamless. The low speeds, along with frequent inclines and regular stops to admire the scenery, seriously undermined my gas mileage. Around mile mark 400 the tank got low enough to warrant a fill-up in Asheville, N.C. Still, filling up a Honda Civic is significantly less expensive than many of the SUVs that roam the parkway, and even with two tanks, the whole ride cost less than $60 in gas.

With constant improvements to hybrid technology, pleasure drivers now have a viable way to insulate their love for the great American road trip from both environmental unease and global oil politics.

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