The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern regions, divided near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southernmost portion in Georgia, then ending northward in Pennsylvania.

To the west of the Blue Ridge, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range. To the east and below the Blue Ridge is first the Piedmont and then the coastal plains.

Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks – the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section and the Shenandoah National Park in the northern section, which includes the Shenandoah Skyline Drive, a 105.5 mile parkway.

Also, there are eight national forests including George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, Monongahela National Forest, Daniel Boone National Forest, Cherokee National Forest, Pisgah National Forest, Nantahala National Forest and Chattahoochee National Forest.

The Blue Ridge also contains the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile (755 km) long scenic highway that connects the two parks and is located along the ridge crest-lines near to the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, a 2181 mile trail, the longest continuously marked footpath in the world. In those nearly 2200 miles, with about 262 shelters, it would take 5,000,0000 steps to complete the crossing of 14 states, and one would walk past about 165,000 white blazes in an average of 165 days that it takes to walk the trail using about 4 or 5 pairs of shoes.