Sometimes the less things change, the better. That appears to be the case with the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was a runaway favorite with voters in no less than three Outdoor categories: Place to Hike, Place to Picnic and Bike Ride: Road.

The curving, 469-mile scenic roadway will celebrate its 75th anniversary in two years. Despite its age, it's still one of the most-visited National Park Service parks. Encroaching development and non-native plant species are two of many factors that threaten the parkway, but it's clear that Western North Carolina residents treasure the easy access to nature's beauty that it affords.

So here's hoping that after this year's record-high gas prices and fuel shortages, people will still find a way to get up to the mountain road. And what the heck -- if gas gets too expensive, or we just run out, maybe we can harken back to the origins of the parkway, which was built as a Depression-era public-works project. Using the same model today, we could put people to work to turn the road into one really, really nice pedestrian greenway and bike path.