08:10 AM EDT on Friday, June 24, 2005

Associated Press

An 11-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge parkway that reopened Memorial Day weekend after being closed for eight months is closed again.

The section is expected to reopen in three to four weeks after it washed out Memorial Day weekend. Before that weekend, the stretch of parkway was closed for repairs for damage caused by fall hurricanes.

The stretch that begins just south of the road's intersection with N.C. Highway 80 closed last September after heavy rains from the remnants of hurricanes Frances and Ivan caused sections of the roadbed to slide away.

All attractions can be reached by using a detour route, according to the parkway visitors center.

"The only thing that is really affected is the complete drive," said Pansy Clark of the center. "If our visitation is down this year, it will surprise me."

But Mount Mitchell State Park's attendance figures dropped during the first closure.

During the first eight months when the section was closed, attendance dropped 70 percent, said Ranger Jonathan Griffith.

"Attendance has dropped again, but not as much as the past time," Griffith said.

The only way to reach Mount Mitchell now is to go north on the parkway for 28 miles from Asheville.

An eight-mile stretch of parkway, from mile marker 317 to 325 in the Linville Falls area that also was damaged by hurricanes, remains closed. It is expected to open in fall 2006.

"There's nothing there," Clark said of the road. "It's just gone."