Segment 5: The High Country

Beacon Heights to Devils Garden Overlook

Special Note

In May 2023, the Blue Ridge Parkway began a multi-year repaving and rehabilitation project along the main road between Mileposts 229.6 and 305.1, encompassing virtually all of MST Segment 5. As originally envisioned, the project would implement full or partial road closures on a staggered basis, with associated impacts on the MST and other facilities. Then, in September 2024, Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, severely damaging much of the parkway, causing full closures throughout the region, and upending the construction schedule. As of Spring 2026, most of the parkway and MST have reopened, and the National Park Service expects to complete the work during the 2026 construction season.

During this last phase of construction, there will be intermittent closures while work is underway in various areas. Closure locations will be staggered to allow continuous access to major attractions. If the road is closed due to construction, nearby off-road portions of the MST should remain open, but access may be restricted, and sections where the trail follows the road shoulder or crosses the road will probably be closed.

Because of the sporadic and uncertain nature of the closures, it is not possible for Friends of the MST to provide up-to-date information or suggested detours. The most reliable information will be available on the Blue Ridge Parkway website, www.nps.gov/blri, and in visitor centers along the route. More particularly, the following pages may be useful:

• Alerts & Conditions, nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/conditions.htm, has a list of current closures.
• Road Status and Closures, nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm, provides mile-by-mile status reports.
• Maps, nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/maps.htm, includes maps of the general areas where construction may be occurring, with suggested detour routes; these will be updated as construction progresses to new areas.

By Carolyn Sakowski and Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail

This segment, covering almost 85 miles, offers the hiker some of the most astounding scenery in northwestern North Carolina. This part of the trail, which travels along the ridgeline where elevations range from 4,300 to 3,400 feet, offers views looking down the escarpment into the North Carolina Piedmont.

Most of this section runs parallel to the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) and often crosses the parkway as the trail goes back into the woods and away from the road. There are a few stretches that cross fields, which will sometimes share space with friendly cows. There are also a few patches where the trail travels along a backroad or the shoulder of the BRP, but most of this segment is on well-engineered footpaths that make the ascents and descents easy to hike. Although the BRP is always nearby, you often feel that you are deep in the woods, miles from civilization.

This section begins at Beacon Heights and follows the Tanawha Trail as it travels along the base of Grandfather Mountain, one of only 553 certified biosphere reserves in the world. It continues past the resort town of Blowing Rock, travels near West Jefferson, and ends near Sparta in the northwest corner of North Carolina near the Virginia border.

• The Linn Cove Viaduct, a 1,243-foot concrete engineering marvel that carries the BRP around the base of Grandfather Mountain
• Views of Grandfather Mountain, Table Rock, Hawksbill, and Pisgah National Forest that can encompass over 50 miles on a clear day
• Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, where the MST uses the park’s former carriage trails and passes by Flat Top Manor, which now serves as the parkway’s craft center
• E.B. Jeffress Park with the restored cabin of farmer Jesse Brown and Cool Springs Baptist Church as well as “The Cascades” waterfall, which slides over rocks for 250 feet
• Mount Jefferson Overlook, where you have a panoramic view of Grandfather, Sugar, and Beech Mountains to the south and Mount Jefferson looming over the town of Jefferson in front of you
• Doughton Park, whose 7,000 acres offer picnic areas, camping facilities, and hiking along ridges and through meadows with long-range views of the surrounding area
• Brinegar Cabin, built about 1885, which often offers hand-loom weaving and other mountain craft demonstrations during the summer

Segment 5 Eastbound Elevation Profile