A 75-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway will be impacted by a long-term repaving project that will require single-lane closures and some full closures over the coming years.
Pavement preservation work at Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks, parking areas and picnic areas from milepost 294 to 384 (between Blowing Rock and Asheville) and milepost 394 to 443 (south of Asheville to Balsam Gap) is planned for the 2023 visitor season.
The Bluffs Restaurant at Doughton Park, milepost 241 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, will reopen for the season on Friday, May 26, with a new team managing operations. Cal Ledbetter of The Bluffs Restaurant, LLC, will manage the restaurant.
Vandalism at Acadia National Park, low water levels in Lake Powell that are placing Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in a bind, and new speciality license plates for fans of the Blue Ridge Parkway are among the stories circulating around the National Park System this week.
How gateway communities along the 469-mile-long Blue Ridge Parkway that weaves through the high country of Virginia and North Carolina should manage economic development is the goal of an action plan to be developed.
Across the National Park System, national parks fortunate enough to have friends groups helping them out have been leaning a little bit harder on those non-profit organizations than in the past. In some cases, a lot harder as federal funding has not kept up with the increase in park units, or the costs of maintaining and operating those parks.
Winter's vagaries -- blizzards and periods without snow, sub-zero thermometer readings, and unseasonably warm temps -- can toss you curveballs when it comes to enjoying the season in the National Park System, but if you plan carefully you can be prepared with alternatives.
The addition of two web cameras along the Blue Ridge Parkway give you a couple more options for watching fall color the forests that border the scenic roadway.
With Hurricane Ian expected to come ashore Friday in Georgia and South Carolina as a tropical storm and continue on up the coast, National Park System units are instituting closures or urging visitors to be mindful of the storm.