Amherst to Crozet:
Drive Time: 35 miles or about 40 minutes
Driving north from Lynchburg and past the town of Amherst, you will come to an Apple Market gas station on the left hand side of route 29 on the way to Charlottesville. Unless you are driving to the emergency room at the University of Virginia medical center, you should frequently elect to take the left onto Route 151 at that tiny store in the foothills of Virginia.
Initially, you may wonder why you are driving on this road or where exactly it is taking you. Within the first couple miles, your cell service will forget that it exists. You will find yourself driving through the villages of Clifford, Piney River, Bryant, and Roseland. The scenery through these places is a mixed bag of fantastic mountain views and rolling fields, and there are times at which you wonder whether or not the land of Virginia is trying to claim back its property and tear down the neglected buildings brick by brick.
While this lends to some of the charm of the landscape, the farther you travel, the more picturesque your surroundings become. If you allow yourself to take everything in, you will find that the thoughts of owning a retirement house on the beach simply vanish. The terrain engulfs you and your car as you travel higher into the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. It is at this point at which you find yourself actually traveling below the posted speed limit of 55 miles per hour.
Driving higher into the mountains, you come across a section of road on which a rally car would be comfortable. The switchbacks and elevations changes guide your car through the mountains and into the town of Wintergreen. It is here that Virginia truly expresses every bit of charm that it has to give. Several breweries, wineries, and cideries dot the side of the highway as you travel ever closer to Route 250 to the north. You can find a ski resort and golf course in the town of Wintergreen as well as a sense of hominess that you find in a warm cup of coffee on a fall day when you realize that it is 9AM and you don’t have to go into work.
As you continue to ride the gentle slopes of the hills and the twists and turns take you further north, you realize that just around the next corner is Route 250. It is where route 151 officially ends, and there is a sense of accomplishment that engulfs you. Turning right takes you into Crozet and Charlottesville Turning left takes you up the mountain into Afton and Waynesboro. After you decide which direction to go next, you look back and realize that you have successfully conquered one of the most beautiful drives that Virginia has to offer.
–SWF
