55 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway reopens as Yellowstone preps for winter road closures

For 469 miles, the Blue Ridge Parkway stretches from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia south to Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The road is a National Parkway maintained by the National Park Service, and traverses the famed Blue Ridge mountains of the larger Applachian range through one of the more scenic and beautiful landscapes our country has to offer.

The entirety of the parkway closed on October 5th in the wake of the devastating rain and floods brought on by Hurricane Helene. Landslides wiped away asphalt while floodwaters eroded the banks on which much of the road was constructed, and the weeks that followed have seen engineers inspecting each and every mile to figure out the best, most effective way to rebuild one of the most visited roadway destinations in the country.

198 miles of the parkway reopened in Virginia on October 11th, the more northern section of the road having not seen quite the same level of devastation as the southern section. A further 20 mile section reopened near Blowing Rock, North Carolina on October 23rd, the parkway itself serving as a vital lifeline to rural communities in the region who had lost all infrastructure for the flow of goods and services due to the floods. The latter marked the first section that had been reopened in North Carolina since Helene hit.

This morning, the National Park Service announced a further 55 miles of parkway had been reopened in North Carolina, all of which span from milepost 411.8 to milepost 469 near the entrance of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. However, the NPS emphasized that the 2.2 mile section between milepost 421 and 423.3 remains closed at Devil’s Courthouse, a 5,720 foot crag that features some of the more traversed hiking trails in the Pisgah National Forest.

As the NPS noted in its press release, that 2.2 mile stretch is expected to remain closed for additional weeks (or months) as a major landslide impacted not only the road in place but the entire ridge on which it had been previously built.

While there are still dozens of miles of the parkway that are closed indefinitely, it’s a monumental task to see so much of it reopened in relatively short order following the destruction Helene inflicted on the region. Here is some additional information on ways you can donate to recovery efforts in the region.

It’s a different story across the country in Yellowstone National Park, where the west, south, and east entrances will close road access on November 1st. That leaves Halloween as the final day to use the roads in those portions of the park as it preps for winters that typically see some 150 inches of snow at average elevations and as much as 400 inches of snow on its peaks.

Convenient timing, too, as Yellowstone got a healthy dose of snow beginning on October 29th, as Buckrail helped relay.

As the NPS notes, the north entrance of the park remains open year-round (weather permitting) as US-212 serves as the lifeline route for access to Cooke City, Montana from Gardiner, Montana, with Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Junction on said route.