Bluffs Picnic Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway - Highlands District, National Park Service

Hasty, David; Lawliss, Lucy

This CLI, originally published in 2005, was updated in 2022 in order to better reflect existing conditions and fill out previously spare descriptions of key landscape characteristics and features. Observational data gathered in the field, as well as excerpted narrative and graphic data from "Doughton Park and Sections 2A, B and C: Cultural Landscape Report, Blue Ridge Parkway, National Park Service" (The Jaeger Company, 2006) and "Survey and Assessment, Blue Ridge Parkway - Appendix" (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.. 2016) provided the basis for this update. Bluffs Picnic Area is an 80‑acre component landscape set within 6300‑acre Doughton Park, a Blue Ridge Parkway developed area in North Carolina. The site is accessed by Ridge Road, which spans the entire picnic area starting at parkway Milepost 241.1. Ridge Road parallels the eastern side of the parkway road, and terminates in a cul‑de‑sac, roughly one mile to the south. Bluffs Picnic Area is one of the first picnic facilities planned for Blue Ridge Parkway. The first section was completed in the late‑1930s. An extension was proposed during this time, and then designed and built in the 1950s. The picnic area takes advantage of the rolling terrain of the Bluffs area, offering views of the surrounding mountain laurel meadows, and providing the visitor with rustic picnic sites secluded in the scattered forest. The first comfort station was built in 1941, and it is notable both for its rustic, Adirondack‑style architecture and its prominent siting above the first Ridge Road parking area. The second comfort station was built close to two decades later, and better represents the later, utilitarian style found at Blue Ridge. Many of the pathways leading through the picnic area were designed and built in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Their location and the use of stone steps and log interrupters are consistent with the design specifications of the parkway. Early examples of picnic tables, fireplaces, and drinking fountains are also seen. The setting of mountain laurel and rhododendron meadows interspersed with patches of forest figured prominently in this location for the picnic area. A 1942 planting plan called for the enhancement of this existing flora, with a few trees suggested for the entry, more rhododendron and mountain laurel throughout, and smaller, lower‑growing species for the rock ledges – enhancing the rock garden feeling of the rock ledges along Ridge Road. As one of the first picnic areas to be designed and built, the property contributes to the historical significance of the parkway. The development that took place during the first three periods of Blue Ridge history (1936 – 1955) contributes to the national significance of Blue Ridge as an National Historic Landmark. These features include the entire length of Ridge Road, since the second portion was designed before 1955 and construction completed shortly after. It also includes the comfort station and trail shelter, the c. 1939 trails, picnic sites and drinking fountains, as well as the vegetation, including what remains of the 1940 planting design. Picnic sites along the southern end of the extension show the progression from the rustic style of the first three periods of Blue Ridge development (1933 – 1955), to the last two periods (1956 – 1987). Planting plans for the property were completed in the 1940s, and further enhance the naturalistic style already in place, with low‑growing plants used in the rock ledges, more mountain laurel and rhododendron in open areas, and a few trees at the entry. Evidence of this naturalistic planting style is still seen today.

Bluffs Picnic Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway - Highlands District, National Park Service

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