The winter sky is dry and clear, the temperature cold, invigorating. It’s the perfect weather for a long mountain hike. Then, your car loaded with gear and enthusiasm, you find your travels and day-hike dreams shattered by those two little words on a barricade baring access to the trailhead: 

Road closed.

It happens in the Southern Appalachians this time of year. It happens frequently on the Blue Ridge Parkway, off of which you’ll find 369 miles of hiking trail, including a couple hundred miles of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. It happens along 105-mile Skyline Drive through Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. National Forest access roads can close after a good snow, and while snow removal on highways and roads is generally pretty, short closures can happen. And more than weather can keep you from your destination: construction, accidents, landslides can all close roads, or at least reduce traffic to stop-and-go, increasing your time behind the wheel and minimizing the time your behind is on the trail. 

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to get current information on road conditions in the Southeast. Below, we list the major road systems we use to access trails and provide a link and a description of the kinds of helpful road information you can find. 

• Blue Ridge Parkway. The thing about the Parkway is that very little of it is maintained in winter: when it does snow or an ice storm hits, the parkway is closed until it melts. Even if there hasn’t been a storm through in a week or more, the parkway, especially its higher reaches — say, from Mount Pisgah west to Waterrock Knob, or from Asheville to Mount Mitchell — can stay closed for long stretches, depending upon the weather. A super-handy feature on the BRP website is a map showing real-time road closures. Stretches of the parkway showing green are open, if it’s red its closed, if it’s yellow it’s under an advisory (fog, for instance). In a column on the left side of the screen you can click on one of 14 areas along the parkway and drill down to that area, simplifying your search. This information is also available in a chart broken down by crossroads and mileposts. Here, you can tell the reason for the closure as well. NOTE: This is also where you can keep tabs on what sections of the Parkway remain closed because of Helene. Short answer: In North Carolina, a lot. 
• Skyline Drive. Virginia’s Skyline Drive does not have a similar real-time road-closure option online. Rather, for road conditions on this 105-mile road through Shenandoah National Park, call: 540-999-3500, option 1, option 1
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There aren’t a lot of roads in this half-million-acre National Park, and many of the roads therein have seasonal closures (find those here). Follow current road status updates on Twitter at SmokiesRoadsNPS. Updates are available for Newfound Gap Road (US-441), Little River Road, Laurel Creek Road, and Cades Cove Loop Road.
• NCDOT. North Carolina’s real-time road conditions map includes various layers: you can check by type of road (Interstate, US highway, State Route, Secondary Road), by county, by traffic cameras. You can check to see where there’s current congestion, from construction, from accidents, whatever. And, as is the case with the National Park Service and the Blue Ridge Parkway, this is the place to find out what roads remain closed as a result of Helene.
• VDOT. The Virginia Traffic Information map also includes a variety of layers. Among the helpful tools we especially like is one that lets you judge congestion by traffic speed. Click on “Speeds” and roads where traffic is proceeding at 40 percent or below the posted speed limit will appear black; if people are driving between 40 percent and 60 percent of the speed limit the road will show red, 60-80 percent yellow, and 80 percent or above will show as a green road. There’s also an overlay for Precipitation — rain, ice, snow, a mix — and for road conditions.
• TDOT. Tennessee’s SmartWay program is where you can find weather-related issues and Traffic Delays by degree: click on the Traffic Delays function and the roads appear green for No Delays, orange for Moderate Delays, red for “Traffic” Delays, a deep crimson for Heavy Traffic Delays. It also includes a Waze function with real-time info.
• SCDOT. South Carolina’s 511sc site provides some of the same information plus driving directions, including the quickest way to reach the beach.

Unless you’d rather be listening to podcasts in gridlock than hiking, make friends with these resources and use them before heading out on your next adventure.

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In a nutshell

Here are the key links mentioned above to help you effectively, quickly and safely navigate your way to the trailhead.

• Blue Ridge Parkway: Realtime Road closure map
• Skyline Drive: call 540-999-3500, option 1, option 1.
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 
• NCDOT: Real-Time Traffic Conditions here
• VDOT (Virginia): Virginia Traffic Information
• TDOT (Tennessee): SmartWay
• SCDOT (South Carolina): 511SC 

The post Don’t let a closed road ruin your day appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Note: Most coastal state parks are planning to close Thursday and Friday in anticipation of Hurricane Arthur. Their reopening is dependent upon Arthur’s wrath. Check the North Carolina State Parks website before heading to any park that may be affected by the storm.

Coast

There is, perhaps, no more fretful feeling than not knowing exactly where you are (the more pessimistic among us refer to this condition as being “lost”). You’ve lost the trail (you don’t remember seeing a blaze for 15 minutes), nothing looks familiar, daylight is waning. You think about those cartoons where the protagonist (Spongebob, say) is thrust into darkness, surrounded only by evil eyes.

Now imagine being able to not only figure your way out of a typical hardwood forest, but out of a dense swamp! That should be the case after attending Orienteering 101 on Sunday at Dismal Swamp State Park. The class is on the park’s new orienteering course (thanks to a local Eagle Scout) and should have you feeling better about your plight in the woods.

Logistics: Sunday, July 5, 2 p.m., Dismal Swamp State Park, South Mills. 252.771.6593 to register.

Saturday forecast: High of 88, sunny.

Piedmont

Being outdoors is often about more than just hiking or paddling or climbing or biking. Sometimes, it’s about music, about arts & crafts, about food and, perhaps, beer.

The two-day (Friday and Saturday) Festival For the Eno at West Point on the Eno city park in Durham is one such occasion. For two days, you can hear 65 acts on four stages, wander among various vendors, check out a beer garden and, all the while, help the sponsoring Eno River Association protect the Eno River watershed. Plus, you can do some of your favorite outdoor activities, such as hike on the park’s five miles of trail or paddle the mile-long Eno millpond. A Triangle tradition for celebrating the Fourth.

Logistics: Friday and Saturday, July 4 & 5, West Point on the Eno City Park, Durham. $20, $30 for both days. More info here.

Friday and Saturday forecast: Highs in the mid- to upper 80s, partly cloudy Friday, sunny Saturday.

Mountains

Fall color cascades in North Carolina from the highest, coolest elevations of the west to the warmer, lower east, the spring wildflower display does the opposite. If you haven’t caught the latter since it began in late February, time is running out. But there’s still wildflower action to be had at the state’s highest elevations, including Elk Knob State Park, where on Sunday, a park ranger will lead w wildflower hike.

The hike isn’t long, at a little more than two miles (out and back), but it does involve a good climb. Fortunately, you’ll be stopping often to check out the blooms.

Logistics: Sunday, July 5, 2 p.m., Elk Knob State Park, Todd. For more information, call 828.297.7261.

Sunday forecast: High of 75, mostly sunny.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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