The Blue Ridge Parkway has reopened two more road sections and about 100 campsites in North Carolina, giving visitors additional places to reach during the fall travel season while recovery work continues elsewhere. The National Park Service announced the openings on Oct. 5, describing them as part of ongoing repairs after Hurricane Helene.
The reopened road sections are between milepost 317.5 and 324.7, south of Linville Falls, and between milepost 333.9 near Little Switzerland and milepost 340.2 at North Carolina Highway 80. The announcement gives drivers specific stretches to plan around; it does not mean the entire Parkway is open.
At Julian Price Campground, loops B and D have reopened after being closed following Helene. The two loops add about 100 campsites, according to WSOC-TV’s Oct. 7 report. The campground is near milepost 297, north of the newly reopened road sections. WSOC noted that much of the campground had been closed for nearly two years after the storm; these loops are a partial return, not a reopening of every campsite. NPS said reservations were available through Oct. 30 on Recreation.gov.
The park service credited crews of arborists and volunteers with helping restore access to the campground. The reopening is one part of a wider recovery that also includes road repairs and construction elsewhere along the route.
Julian Price, at milepost 297, is north of the road projects around Linville Falls and Little Switzerland. NPS says visitors can now drive uninterrupted from the James River at milepost 63.7 in Virginia to Little Switzerland near milepost 344 in North Carolina. The remaining closure between mileposts 344 and 355 begins just beyond that stretch.
Visitor Clark Black told WSOC that rangers had made him aware the loops had just opened at the beginning of the month. He called the timing “great.” WSOC also reported that visitors were glad to be back outdoors and enjoying the fall weather.
The NPS release likewise announces the completed work without giving a separate opening date for every road section and campground loop. Oct. 5 is the date of the announcement, not necessarily the day each place reopened. Keeping that distinction clear lets visitors understand what is available without implying that all the work happened at once.
The scale of the work helps explain why access is returning in pieces. The park service said 458 of the Parkway’s 469 miles were accessible as of its announcement. Of 60 Helene-related slide repairs, 48 had been completed and 12 remained underway. The numbers describe different measures: accessible road mileage and a set of slide-repair projects. They should not be read as saying that all remaining closures are slides or that every completed repair has reopened a road.
The two road openings are part of that continuing repair effort. 828 News NOW reported on the newly accessible stretches and the broader reopening progress, noting that the additional access arrives as fall visitors head to Western North Carolina. That local benefit exists alongside the remaining closures shown in the park service’s mileage tally.
The announcement also listed projects separate from the Helene repairs. In Virginia, mileposts 115 to 121 reopened after a multiyear repaving project. In North Carolina, Deep Gap Bridge reopened after scheduled maintenance; it was not one of the Helene-damaged road sections. A separate 75-mile reconstruction project in North Carolina was completed in September.
For drivers, mileposts are the clearest way to distinguish open sections from areas where crews are still working. The NPS release said the stretch between mileposts 344 and 355 remained under repair, with work there expected to finish by the end of 2026. Visitors should check the park’s current road and facility status before setting out, since conditions and closures can change while repairs proceed.
The recent openings are a visible step in a long recovery, not a declaration that it is finished. The reopened road sections connect familiar Parkway destinations, while the campground loops return additional places to stay. For families making fall plans, that means more choices are available now, alongside a need to confirm the latest conditions and leave room for work still underway.
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