North Cove overlook and Altapass Apple Orchard

A view of Atlapass apple orchards, with the Blue Ridge Parkway running along the top of the slope.

This is one of my favorite overlook sites I've ever found on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It just felt person-friendly, rather than the sterile concrete, and sometimes walled off overlooks, (though there was also that area.)  Well, part of it was shaded by trees, and there was still plenty of viewing space.  Nothing too exciting besides the apple orchard to see, but as an artifact of humans efforts on the landscape, it's much better than a mine.  Drive over to Spruce-Pine (very close by) to see how strip mining can glare over a town on it's mountains.

Again you can see the rows of apple trees in the distance going parallel to the ridge.  When I took this picture I didn't realize what they were, and just thought it was a strange tree farm where they were definitely not Christmas trees.  (There are several farms of Christmas Trees in the area however.)


(source of this picture, Romantic Asheville)