Anyone who has taken a few trips down the engineering-marvel that is the Blue Ridge Parkway knows that it is so much more than a road. It is a thruway fit snug within an outdoor natural museum. The soft rolling views, often spooling out like rounded waves to the horizon, are there to remind travelers that these are some of the oldest mountain formations on the globe, peaks that once soared like the Rockies when Pangea was still a thing. That rich geological note is at a glance around every bend. But so is the amazing diversity of flora and fauna. David T. Catlin, a naturalist for the National Park Service, assembled this expertly rendered appreciation / guide in the 1980s, giving deep context to that natural bounty and adding a necessary addition to the literature of this treasured roadway. The back cover description is spot-on: “Winding over the crests and through the valleys of the southern Appalachian highlands … the Blue Ridge Parkway offers the traveler a natural spectacle unsurpassed for complexity and grandeur. This book is a lively and compact on-the-spot guide to the region’s features, geological history, and natural inhabitants—from its plants, insects, and fish to its reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals.” Want to see a cove forest? Covered. Golden Eagles? Covered. A wall of rhododendron like you will see nowhere else? Definitely covered. Context is the foundation for appreciation and wonder when you step out into nature. This rich volume puts you there, urging all to go and take this drive, one like nowhere else, and stop—often—along the way! [Condition: Aside from the slightest of corner cover nicks, this book is in like new condition, even at 40+ years of age; there is not even a single spine crease, only slight age discoloration on the inside back cover. Its interior, including a collection of black & white illustrations and photos, is in mint condition.]
Condition: Used Very Good. Nature / Outdoors. David T. Catlin. University of Tennessee Press, 1984. Softcover (First Edition), 208 pgs, 6 x 8.5" / 14 oz
