Bluffs Lodge, one of four lodging facilities along the Blue Ridge Parkway, will be closed for the 2011 season.
The lodge and nearby coffee shop have been managed by Forever Resorts after taking over the contract in 2002 from National Park Concessions. Forever Resorts decided to discontinue its operations on the Blue Ridge Parkway following several years of one-year contract extensions. Forever Resorts was concessionaire at Rocky Knob Cabins, Mabry Mill, and Crabtree Falls in addition to Bluffs and the coffee shop. All are on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Forever Resorts in April 2010 did not renew its concession at Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park. That property was picked up under a 10-year contact by ARAMARK Parks and Destinations that operates Kalaloch and Sol Duc Hot Springs in the same park. ARAMARK is also concessionaire for Lake Quinault Lodge in neighboring Olympic National Forest.
Bluffs Lodge has experienced several issues, including problems with a new roof and closure of portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway due to construction work on historic rock guardwalls. The parkway is currently closed from milepost 241 to 245.5. Beginning July of this year, the closure is expected to move north to a section between milepost 232.5 and 241. The lodge is at milepost 241. Current construction work on the rock guardwalls is expected to be complete by the spring of 2012.
Capital improvements are not typically made by concessionaires operating on one-year contract extensions, and understandably so. Numerous short-term extensions at the same facility often result in a need for substantial expenditures by either the NPS or a new concessionaire. Contract length has sometimes been a contentious issue between concessionaires and the National Park Service.
According to Lisa Davis, concessions specialist for the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is hoped that Bluffs Lodge and the nearby coffee shop will reopen for the 2012 season under a new concessionaire. Bluffs relatively small size, with only 24 rooms, makes it difficult to operate profitably.
The gift shop at Crabtree Falls (formerly called Crabtree Meadows) will remain open and serve as a bookstore for Eastern National. Snacks and other pre-packaged food items, visitor convenience items, and camping and picnic related items will also be offered for sale.
Rocky Knob Cabins and Mabry Mill will also remain open with a new concessionaire under a temporary two-year contract.
The two of us have stayed at Bluffs Lodge on six or seven occasions and our experiences have always been positive. The rooms are dated, but we view this as part of the appeal, and it certainly blends perfectly with the coffee shop that hasn’t changed much in appearance since its construction in 1948. On one occasion we walked to our room after checking in and discovered a guest from our neighboring room playing a harp on the balcony. You don’t find that at a Holiday Inn.
Here’s hoping a new concessionaire soon comes forth and offers rooms to parkway travelers who enjoy a great place to spend the night.
Comments
The cooks are now at Buckaroo's Grille near the parkway.
9531 NC Hwy 93, Piney Creek, NC 28663
336-359-2815
www.buckaroogrille.com
If anything can be screwed up for the tourists, the Blue Ridge Parkway will guarantee that they will screw it up as is illustrated here!
The closing of Bluffs Lodge was an important part of the Obama administration's huge federal program to create jobs and improve infrasture. The rock walls and highway surface including shoulders was supposedly repaired. Also most of the bridges and tunnels needed repair. There were a number of problems with how all this was done. My understanding is the the Bluffs Lodge, which I also have stayed at, was closed on rather short notice. And the profitability of a small operation was, as stated by others here, difficult. A local I became acquainted with said that after several years of being closed the hotel now faces some major repairs. Inspection, according to him, showed that the plumbing has suffered due to the lengthy closure as has the "repaired" roof which needs more repairs and leaks in places. The last time I drove to the hotel the abandoned parking lot had lots of grass growing through cracks. That will open up the cracks and make the surface need more repairs. The facts are that the entire project along the parkway was done rather shotgun style. The worst of the cracked pavement was replaced... to a degree, but many other areas are in need of similar repairs. While hiking along the parkway in a POURING rain storm I marveled as I spent about ten minutes watching a crew lay asphalt onto the soaked surface. I know enough about road work from paying my way through college doing roads and grounds work to know asphalt can be laid on a wet surface with little ill effects if the aggregate is good and hot but in this case they were a long ways from the plant and... laying the asphalt on a surface that had rain running across the pavement and puddling where they were laying it. If one slows down and looks at the replaced asphalt one can see that many of the new, repaired, areas are again failing. The rock walls seem to have been done somewhat better. But, in regard to the Bluff Lodge I would be surprised if it will ever open again because one issue is who will pay for repairs needed to allow it to open and operate. Its a Catch 22 sort of situation that has been reported in a couple of local newspapers. Hopefully someone will come along and make me a liar but its not 2015, the place closed in 2011 and so far no one has made me a liar about the place being reopened. Its such a shame that poor government has created this situation.