count. Even so, if they increase in
numbers as much as has been predicted, the added demand for places to go
will require more lease and day hunting on private land in the long run
than exists at present, and improvement of that land's wildlife
potential.

Certain other kinds of recreational facilities, constituting the bulk of
profitable enterprises associated with America's outdoor pleasure, will
have to depend mainly or solely on private development of them.
Amusement parks, marinas, and ski lifts are examples, and so are most of
the lodging places, restaurants, and other service facilities that
thrive wherever increased public recreational activity takes place.

Most Americans do some driving for pleasure, and some of them do a great
deal of it, using their four-wheeled bugs not just as a way of getting
to pleasant places but as an indispensable adjunct to being in them and
enjoying them. In certain respects, the Basin falls short of providing
for their needs. The explosive demand in the past few years for auto
campgrounds where people can stop with their cars, trailers, and pickup
units has caused a shortage of adequately equipped facilities of this
sort, especially within easy reach of Washington, which will have to be
supplied by both public and private effort. Roads specifically designed
for leisurely pleasure driving, in contrast to high-speed throughways,
are another need. The Basin has two such motorways now--the George
Washington Memorial Parkway at the metropolis, a much-used city road in
its present form though still a main amenity, and the Skyline Drive
along the Blue Ridge, with the Blue Ridge Parkway extending southward
through it and out of the Potomac country. This magnificent low-speed
mountain-top route looks out alternately over the Great Valley and the
Piedmont, and the heavy use it receives, increasing year by year, shows
what the right kind of scenic motor routes can mean to people.

[Illustration]

For a multitude of residents and visitors, nothing would contribute more
to appreciation of what the Basin has to offer than a system of
unobtrusive parkways and scenic wandering roads joining together the
region's attractions--history and scenery and sports, rivers and valleys
and mountains. A major element in such a system, being studied, would be
a great loop parkway tying together the existing parkways by an
extension along the river and turning southward into the country along
the historic J