Rockfish Gap is a mountain pass in name only, a low saddle in the Blue Ridge where Interstate 64, the town of Waynesboro, and two of the most famous scenic roads in America all meet. To the north runs Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park, and to the south the Blue Ridge Parkway begins its long, curving journey, about 470 miles in all, toward the Great Smoky Mountains.
The Parkway was begun in the 1930s as a public works project during the Depression, and workers built it by hand and with simple machines along the ridgelines, so that every bend was designed to show a view. The idea was a road for driving slowly, which is why the speed limit hardly ever exceeds 45 miles per hour, commercial traffic is banned, and there are no traffic lights or billboards. It is the longest linear park in the US.
For a rider, that slow pace is the point. The first stretch south of the gap is rolling, wooded and calm, with overlooks facing west across the Shenandoah Valley and east over the Piedmont. Humpback Rocks, a few miles on, has a farm museum and a short, steep hike to a rocky viewpoint. In spring, flowering dogwoods and rhododendron turn the roadside white and pink, and in October, the maples and oaks give the ridge one of the best displays of colour on the east coast. Fog is common, and it can be thick, so a clear visor and low speed matter.
Waynesboro is the practical base. It has fuel, restaurants and motels, and you should fill your tank here, since there are very few fuel stops directly along the Parkway, and you may need to leave the road to find one. Mabry Mill, further down at about milepost 176, is a photogenic old gristmill with a restaurant famous for its buckwheat pancakes, and many riders time their day to reach it for breakfast.
The history of the gap itself includes a gathering in 1818 where commissioners picked the site for the University of Virginia, a lasting contribution from this small pass. Winter ice can close sections of the Parkway at short notice, so check the park's road status before you set off between November and March.