About a third of the Blue Ridge Parkway has now reopened in North Carolina as the National Park Service works to repair damage from the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
An 11-mile section of the road opened Wednesday near Asheville, between US 70 and NC 191 near the NC Arboretum. That stretch includes the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center and the Folk Art Center, which is expected to reopen Nov. 9.
All 469 miles of the parkway were closed after Helene, between Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The storm left tens of thousands of trees across the road and numerous landslides and washouts.
As of Nov. 1, the park service had restored access to all 220 miles of the parkway in Virginia, where the storm caused less damage.
But the road, part of the National Park System, remains a patchwork in North Carolina. About 92 of the state’s 250 miles of parkway are open to visitors, divided into four unconnected sections.
The park service says the most damaged portions of the road will remain closed for months.
Helene exited the parkway, covered in trees, near Asheville. Workers removed more than 350,000 cubic yards of storm debris, enough to fill nearly 150 shipping containers, the park service said.
“Incident crews and contractors have been working on this section for over a month, with large numbers of damaged trees, large amounts of tree debris on the roadway and heavy equipment working through the corridor at the same time,” parkway inspector Tracy Swartout said in a written statement . “I am grateful for everyone involved in the effort to reopen this critical section of the Parkway.”
The segment that opened Wednesday runs between mileposts 382.8 and 393.7. Other sections that have reopened in North Carolina include:
▪ Between mileposts 285.5 and 305.1, near Blowing Rock, including the Moses Cone Manor House parking lot and nearby carriage paths.
▪ Between mileposts 405.5 and 420.2, from US 276 to Black Balsam, including the Graveyard Fields overlook and trailheads.
▪ Between mileposts 423.2 and 469.1, from NC 215 to US 441 in Cherokee, near the national park.
A portion of the parkway south of the Virginia state line was closed for repaving before the storm and has not reopened.
The majority of the parkway still closed through Helene runs between Asheville and the Linville Falls area. This stretch includes access to Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell State Park, the highest point east of the Mississippi River, both of which remain inaccessible.
