STAGE 3: Electric Bike the Blue Ridge Parkway from Mount Mitchell to Little Switzerland

After several weeks of deep regret, the decision was made to buy real rain gear. Which came in handy on this ride. May your ride be as successfully dry in a wet world as you ride from almost the highest point in NC to a delightful little wide spot in the road called Little Switzerland and its awesome (and unfortunately un-photographed due to traffic) massive tunnel.

How you get there: To save on end of ride suffering, and because in Stage 2 we assaulted Mount Mitchell already, the ride was begun at the Mount Mitchell Overlook, whose view is exactly what it advertises. Overlook is located at 35.722238, -82.220085.

Time for the ride: 38.3 miles round trip on a mostly out and back. For a change of pace (and due to the relatively heavy traffic in the Little Switzerland area on the Blue Ridge Parkway) this route deviates off the parkway and onto 226A for a stretch to come back around into Little Switzerland for a potential lunch stop at the Little Switzerland Cafe, which has picnic tables to one side that are excellent for tying up bikes. Be aware this can be a high bear area – bring bear spray. We usually see one to two bears per ride.

Best season to do this ride: During some portions of winter the parkway is snow bound, (especially near its highest point), so avoid December, January, and February. Every other time should be a worthwhile ride. Unless it’s hailing. Hail sucks.

Route to Ride

Starting at the awesome Mount Mitchell Overlook, take a few gratuitous shots with the mountain itself in the background. Then it’s down the road, and through the balsam to the first of a series of tunnels. There are some okay overlooks, excepting Singecat Ridge, which has no view and is really only useful as a spot to change to a second battery on the way back. The best tunnels are the twin tunnels, a pair of rockcut roadways with a very short space of open sky in between them.

You’ll come up on Crabtree Falls. Like Craggy Gardens, which is named after the Craggy Garden’s trail, this area is named after a waterfall trail, but it’s not a short haul (2 miles minimum) and it’s not in a very bikeable location. We did explore the picnic area, which had some nice original stone water fountains (unworking though!). The next big stop is Little Switzerland itself, which is mostly two inns – the fancy one called Switzerland Inn, and the old school motor motel called Big Lynn Lodge, which is more my speed frankly. You’ll ride past the Switzerland Inn, which is adjacent to the parkway. The traffic’s pretty intense here, but continue on for the unusually large and impressive Little Switzerland Tunnel.

At the turn off beyond the tunnel for the Museum of North Carolina Minerals, get off the parkway and take a quick trip to the museum (the grey stone building) and then ride under the parkway to get on 226A to go back to Little Switzerland. There are numerous signs here suggesting trucks not take any of these mountain side routes, which does help keep the traffic down and pretty much insures the ride will be interesting.

226A weaves along the edge of the mountain, returning to Little Switzerland and for those in need of lunch the Little Switzerland Cafe, with a good view of the 1970s esque Little Switzerland Inn and its pool on the way. After lunch you ride up to the parkway, get back on, and climb back to that view of Mount Mitchell. In our case, in the rain.