After Hurricane Helene destroyed much of western North Carolina including the Blue Ridge Parkway, this area of the state is receiving some much-needed good news.
The National Park Service released its October tourism numbers for 2025, and well over 2.5 million tourists visited the Blue Ridge Parkway in October of 2025. That is a 1.8 million increase from the same time last year when the park saw just over 700,000 tourists.
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In September of 2024, Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina causing unprecedented destruction. The National Park Service says the area experienced up to 30 inches of rain and 60 mph winds. There were thousands of trees down, debris covered roadways, and multiple landslides swamped parts of the parkway.
>> Hurricane Helene by the numbers: A look at the damage to western NC
According to The National Park Service, a strategic three-phase plan was created to restore the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The first phase was the repair of over 48 miles of the parkway at various locations across western N.C., and that phase was completed in the fall of 2025.
The second phase will repair 21 landslide areas south of Linville Falls. That work is currently underway and expected to be completed by the fall of 2026.
And the third and final phase -- for repairs in the areas between Little Switzerland and Mount Mitchell -- is now in the planning stage.
The timeline for the last phase is dependent on construction timelines. But the park’s target date for completion is the fall of 2026.
The progress in road reconstruction and bounce-back in tourism is an encouraging sign for the park and its neighboring communities.