Wondering if anyone has ever done a road trip through the Great Appalachian Valley from Alabama to Maine? I am interested in doing this but would sure love some advice.

Thank you

There is the Blue Ridge Parkway which is managed by the National Park Service. It mostly follows ridges though and the speed limit is 45 mph. Extremely scenic. https://www.nps.gov/blri/index.htm

I've lived in the area most of my life and this is the first time I've heard the term "Great Appalachian Valley" so I had to look it up...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Appalachian_Valley

Seems as through it's not a continuous valley, and there not really one continuous road, but rather geographical features defined by the escarpment just to the west., and another ridge of mountains to the east. As such, I've driven many parts of this valley, and also hiked in many of the hills and escarpments named in the map pasted below - Kittatiny, "Gunks, and Helderbergs, as well as hiked in the mountains on either side.

If you break this up into regional pieces, such as the blue ridge parkway described above you can piece together a route. Much of the Hudson river, for example...

Ive driven on most of that route except the very southern part. Not sure what advice you are looking for, it just depends on how much you want to drive each day. The only part of that which can be intimidating and even dangerous, and you have to decide on that (as to if you want to drive that and how much) is the Blue Ridge Parkway between its southern most start to say Roanoke. There are some steep parts, sharp turns and people even die on that each year by driving off it (accidentally of course). The Shenandoahs aren't bad at all. I think there are about 2-3 deaths on it each year from car accidents. Here are some driving tips on that (its speed limit is sometimes lower than 45)

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/...s/71254606007/

Now of course you don't want to be driving a lot of this route in winter, not only there but up in the part probably north of Pennsylvania (NY and Lake Champlain). Although I drive in Vermont a couple times a year and with climate change, it's not usually that bad unless you hit that day or two where they may have real heavy snow/blizzard. You just have to pivot on that issue and hunker down for a couple days.

Now once you get into N NH and Maine, of course winter is a big issue. BUt you could do the entire route between spring and fall. The entire route is about 1200 miles. So you could easily do that in a week. Unless you stop places for several days, of course, which might not be a bad idea.

I was also unfamiliar with the term Great Appalachian Valley. Here is another description and map
https://www.britannica.com/place/Gre...lachian-Valley

As I understand the Valley, it extends north from VT into southern Quebec but does not go into Maine. It is bordered by but doesn't include the mountain ranges and mountain drives mentioned in other posts.

I've been on portions of the Valley on different trips and live near Lake Champlain. I think you could find good information by looking up information for different segments like the Champlain Valley, the Hudson River Valley, the Shenandoah Valley, etc. I would google the names of the 14 valleys shown on the wikipedia map from the link in Post #3.

Add my name to those unfamiliar with the Great Appalachian Valley. But for a few years we've lived mostly in Northern Virginia since the early 1990s and have explored quite a bit; this itinerary could be either a check-box activity or the beginning of a lifetime's woth of distance to explore.