Portion of Blue Ridge Parkway Reopens to Motorists

Almost a year after the remnants of Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina with torrential rainfall, a sliver of hope has been restored with the reopening of a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here is a look at the much-anticipated return of this popular highway.

Large Portion of Blue Ridge Parkway Reopens Following Devastation Caused by Helene

A 26-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway has reopened in North Carolina, marking a significant milestone in the Helene recovery efforts. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic roadway that snakes for 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina. Portions of the route were forced to close after Helene dumped heavy rain that caused landslides and erosion over the roadway.

Managed by the National Park Service (NPS), the route is a well-traveled road for tourists checking out the Blue Ridge Mountains and its surroundings. According to the NPS, over 16.7 million people visited this parkway in 2024. This is a particularly busy time of the year for the region nestled into the Appalachian Mountains as leaf peepers take to the roadway to check out the explosion of fall colors.  

The reopened portion of the parkway extends from the community of Asheville to the entrance to Mt. Mitchell State Park. Asheville's bustling tourism industry was decimated by Helene's impacts over the last year. Business leaders and locals are hopeful that the reopening will help to infuse these tourism dollars back into the community.

Helene was blamed for 57 landslides along the heavily traveled parkway. According to the NPS, damage was reported along 200 miles of the roadway. The work to completely restore the highway is still ongoing with a goal of finishing the work by the autumn of 2026. The recent reopening is just the first phase of completion of a three-phase plan engineered by the NPS with the goal of completely restoring the route.