ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – A piece of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Roanoke County has been closed for more than two years and there is no sign it will reopen any time soon.
Roanoke Mountain Road has been off-limits since the remnants of Hurricane Michael hovered over the parkway in late 2018.
The National Park Service does not have a timeline for the possible re-opening of the road.
Despite the barricades, some people have stepped around the roadblocks and used the abandoned road as a hiking path to the Roanoke Mountain Overlook.
“My wife and I walk just about every morning,” said Blue Ridge Parkway visitor Bill Van Thiel. “We decided to take a walk here today because it looks like the nicest day of the week. We walked up to the top and walked back down to the bottom.”
Van Thiel believes the National Park Service should consider permanently closing Roanoke Mountain Road to cars.
“It’d be nice to be able to drive up there, since there is a path there you can take and walk up to the summit,” Van Thiel said. “On the other hand, it’s nice having this walkway with no vehicles.”