Otter Creek Flats Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway

View: ♦ / 5
Trails: None
Picnic Tables: 2 (no grills)

The Otter Creek Flats Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway is one in a series of stops along Otter Creek as you make your way south to Otter Lake. Most have nothing to offer other than a look at the creek and maybe a picnic table, but here at Otter Creek Flats, things change up a bit—you get a choice of two picnic tables, each with its own massive parking lot. Both tables have good views of the creek. In fact, one table goes a step better that being near the creek—half of it is in the creek. Can’t beat that for a picnicking spot.

Talk about a spot right on the water! Picnic table at the Otter Creek Flats Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Once you pull off the Blue Ridge Parkway you will come to the first section of the parking area where you will find one picnic table. When you leave, instead of hopping right back onto the Parkway, a short, narrow road connects to the second section of the parking area…and other picnic table. So if the first table is taken, don’t sweat it. You’ve got a second chance at getting a spot. And if you are part of an RV convoy, you’ve got plenty of room to park.

I’m not ridiculing Otter Creek. What’s I’m ridiculing is the fact that the National Park Service builds a large parking lot at an area of limited interest and then just sticks one or two picnic tables—sometimes none—on the grounds. Other than stopping here to have a bite to eat, there’s nothing else to do at these pullouts, unless I am completely underestimating the human desire to look at small streams. The next two stops south, the Otter Creek Overlook and the Riffles Overlook, don’t even have a picnic table, and yet they both have massive parking lots. There must have been extra asphalt in the budget.

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