Blue Ridge Pkwy Waterfalls, Natural Bridge SP, Natl D-Day Memorial, VA

Mike and I may have to come back to the Blue Ridge Parkway again someday.  I'm thinking we left so much un explored, we really need to spend more time there!

Not far from the parkway in the city of Bedford is the National D-Day Memorial.  This beautiful memorial is privately funded and this site was chosen because the small city of Bedford lost more men in battle that day per capita than any other city/town in the nation. It is a beautiful tribute:

Statue in memory of
the Bedford Boys

The Allied success at Normandy came at a very high price.  9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded on that day alone.  D-Day turned the tide of the war and set in motion the destruction of the Nazi regime.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose statue sits under the cupola in the gardens, was the Supreme Commander for Operation Overlord, the name given to the D-Day invasion:

Dwight D. Eisenhower

depicting the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944

soldiers scaling the wall of the cliffs

 Two beautiful cascading falls on the Parkway.  The entire hill sides were a series of cascading rivulets/ streams that ran into the main falls areas.  Just beautiful!

cascading streams everywhere

Apple Orchard Falls

Fallingwater Cascades

blooms on the Tulip Tree, aren't they pretty!

We also had to check out Natural Bridge State Park.

solid limstone, 215 feet high and 90 feet from wall to wall

Inside the arch, the initials
"G.W." may have been
carved by George
Washington.  He was
a surveyor at the time
and had been given the
job of measuring
the arch!

US Highway 11  runs over the bridge

beers were OK
but the scenery at this
brewery was
very nice!

liked a couple of the IPA's here!