Blue Ridge Parkway | SLEEPY GAP PARKING AREA (MP 397.3)

Sleepy Gap Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Sleepy Gap Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway

View: ♦ ♦ ♦ / 5
Trails: Mountains to Sea / Shut-In Trail
Picnic Tables: None

The Sleepy Gap Parking Area serves as parking for the Mountains to Sea / Shut-In Trail, and there is a nice view of the mountains on the other side of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Early morning view from the Sleepy Gap Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Early morning view from the Sleepy Gap Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Shut-In Trail runs 16.3 miles from the Buck Springs Gap Overlook parking lot to Bent Creek near North Carolina Highway 191 (near Blue Ridge Parkway Mile Post 393). For its entire length, it and the Mountains to Sea Trail are the same (the trails stick closely to the Parkway route). However, you’d have to say that the Mountains to Sea Trail follows the Shut-In Trail because the Shut-In Trail was built in 1890 by George W. Vanderbilt, the owner of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. This was long before the Mountains to Sea Trail was even thought of. Vanderbilt cut the Shut-In Trail to connect the Biltmore Estate to his hunting cabin at Buck Springs.

The Mountains to Sea Trail is a 1,150-mile trail that stretches from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the North Carolina Outer Banks. However, only about half of the miles are on original trail with the rest following the paths of existing trails such as the Shut-In Trail. The MTS is not part of the National Park system, so I did not hike or review it, but you can get information on the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail website.

There is supposedly a trailhead for the Grassy Knob Trail, but I could not find anything that specifically mentioned that name. The only sign at the parking lot is for the Shut-In trail, so maybe the Grassy Knob Trail is just a spur that branches off the Shut-In Trail.

For more information about trails in the area, see the Mount Pisgah Hiking Trails web page here on National Park Planner.


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Last updated on December 12, 2023
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