Backroads from the Beltway: Your Guide to the Mid-Atlantic's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures - Softcover

Pat and Chuck Blackley are a photography and writing team born and raised in Virginia. Although they work throughout North America, their concentration is on the eastern United States. With a love of the outdoors and history, they find a wealth of subjects throughout the mid-Atlantic. They have enjoyed traveling that region for over thirty years. Chuck is a member of American Society of Media Photographers.

Their work appears in numerous magazines, including AAA, Alaska Airlines, Backpacker, Blue Ridge Country, Country, Defenders of Wildlife, Destinations, Endless Vacation, Family Fun, Frommer’s Budget Travel, National Parks, Natural History, On Earth, Outdoor America, Outdoor Photographer, Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Wildflowers, and in books by Countryman Press, Farcountry Press, Frommer’s, Gareth Stevens, Globe Pequot, Insight Guides, National Geographic, Natural History, Reader’s Digest, Sierra Press, Voyageur Press, and a majority of the national text book and calendar publishers. Additionally, their photographs appear regularly in commercial projects and other publications by organizations such as America Online, Boundless Journeys, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Impact Photographics, National Parks Foundation, National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Sierra Club, Sony Records, The Trust For Public Land, and Valley Conservation Council.

They are the sole authors and photographers of Shenandoah National Park Impressions, Blue Ridge Parkway Impressions, Shenandoah Valley Impressions, Outer Banks Impressions, and Our Virginia.

Within a few hours drive of the hustle and bustle of the Baltimore Washington, D.C., megalopolis, endless miles of quiet backroads await to take you away from it all. They lead to a plethora of peaceful getaways where you can explore the nation s history and its natural beauty.

Travel with a copy of Backroads from the Beltway, and you will be treated to a dramatic range of scenery and attractions, from mountain tops to ocean beaches. You can experience life as it was in colonial America, visit quaint towns and villages, or journey down country lanes that seem a million miles away from the urban jungle inside the Beltway.

Explore the natural wonders of the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains the powerful waterfalls, lush forests, limestone caverns, colorful wildflowers, rushing streams, and abundant wildlife. Stroll along pristine ocean beaches, or witness the spectacle of the wild horses of Assateague Island.

Trace the birth and growth of a nation at Mount Vernon and Monticello; Harpers Ferry and Gettysburg; Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields; early colonial settlements on the Chesapeake Bay; and numerous plantation homes, forts, colonial-era taverns, covered bridges, canals, lighthouses, and other historic sites. Drive through rural communities that still capture America s agricultural heritage, from the rolling fields of the Shenandoah Valley to the simple life of Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

Offering fascinating background information along with helpful tips on the best places to stop and the best times to visit, Pat and Chuck Blackley present a vibrant and thorough picture of the history and life of the Mid-Atlantic region.