Blueridge Parkway Closure

The gate closing the parkway just south of NC 80

The recent heavy rain asssociated with tropical storms Florence and Ivan, have done some serious damage to the Parkway near Asheville. The blockages due to trees down aross the Parkway have been cleared and, within a few weeks, section blocked by mudslides will be cleared, but there are several sections which have road washouts and thise sections are not scheduled to be reopened for almost a year.

The Parkway runs along the side of ridges, you can see the road near the
top of this image which shows an undamaged section just south of Mt Mitchell

Looking down the biggest washout
The double yellow line that used to be in the middle of the road,
is now just visible below the top of the washout

There are three washouts in the 11 mile section between NC 80 and NC 128 (the road up Mt Mitchell). I rode this section, and the 30 miles of open Parkway between NC 128 and Asheville, on Sunday, October 3rd, 2004. This washoutare all on the section of the Parkway between the Twin Tunnels and Green Knob. In this section, the Parkway runs near the top of a ridge, climbing from roughly 3400 to 4800 feet in about five miles. The tropical storm dumped heavy rain on the eastern side of this ridge and, as you can see in the image above, the ground beneath the road gave way and slid down the side of the ridge.

The Parkway in winter as seen from Mt Mitchell, the washouts are on the far side of the ridge in the middle of this image

Although the road is almost completely gone, a lane has been created to allows work vehicles to pass

The first washout is near milepost 344, after the Twin Tunnels, and the other two are near milepost 349, on either side of Rough Ridge. The first and third washouts "only" took the outer lane.

The first washout

There were several places where fallen trees had blocked the Parkway, but all of those places now have at least one lane cleared
These trees will have to go, but that can wait

Climbing towards Rough Ridge Tunnel in the fog

The third washout

It was a cloudy/foggy - it is hard to distinguish between clouds and fog when you ride the Parkway - morning as I climbed towards Green Knob, so there were no long range views, but, on a clear day, this is one of the most spectacular sections of the Parkway. It is also the section used by the Assault on Mt Mitchell bike race which has now been held for over 25 years. It is also a hard section of the Parkway to detour around: Getting to Mt Mitchell from the north around this blockage would take several hours in a car. Of course it takes that long for me on my bike even riding on the closed section (it climbs form 3300 to 4800 feet, then drops to 4200 feet before climbing back to 5200 feet), but a car used to be able to do it in half an hour or less.

The Parkway, climbing towards Mt Mitchell, about a mile from the end of the closed section

The tower on Mt Mitchell
photographed from the Parkway near NC 128

The weather was improving as I reached NC 128.
This is Potato Knob, the first of several 6000 foot plus peaks in the Black Mountains, photographed from near NC 128