Entry No. 29 — the Asheville file — filed under: gardens
Lake Lure Flowering Bridge Gardens
For a decade, volunteers grew twenty themed gardens across a decommissioned 1925 highway bridge over the Rocky Broad River — 155 feet of planted deck with fairy doors, mosaics, and a Rainbow Bridge memorial where people leave tributes to dead pets. On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene's floodwater tore the bridge out entirely and wrecked most of the plantings on its way through Chimney Rock. The volunteers replanted the banks anyway, and the gardens are open again: free, unstaffed, twenty-four hours a day, with the memorials and garden art now facing a river crossing that isn't there. It is equal parts flower garden and monument to a thing the mountains took back.
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The story
Bridge #7 was a three-arch span built in 1925 that carried traffic between Lake Lure and Chimney Rock for 85 years, until a new bridge opened in January 2011 and left it decommissioned. Local resident Bill Miller proposed keeping the old deck as a pedestrian garden; volunteers incorporated as the Friends of the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, and on April 13, 2013 twelve themed gardens went into raised beds along the 155-foot span. It grew to roughly 30 gardens across an acre, including artist Amy Wald's 2022 Rainbow Bridge, where thousands of people hung the collars and tags of dead pets, and drawing more than 180,000 visitors a year.
Hurricane Helene arrived in September 2024 and took about 150 feet of riverbed off the west end. Most of the 30 gardens were washed away or buried under sand and debris, the Rainbow Bridge and its collars went downriver, and the span was left unsafe and closed. Demolition began August 18, 2025, with the bridge's decorative elements salvaged for reuse in the gardens. On September 16, 2025 FEMA awarded the Town of Lake Lure a Section 406 grant toward a replacement pedestrian bridge across the Rocky Broad.
The volunteers - a 501(c)(3) with no paid staff - replanted the banks anyway. Twenty named gardens are back on the east and west sides, among them the Woodland Fairy Garden, All Twisted Up, and a Peter Rabbit Children's Garden going in with fencing and raised beds. The Tranquility Fountain, given in 2016 and buried by the flood, was dug out by the 101st Airborne in October 2024 and reset in the new Courtyard. The Education Center flooded but survived and now holds the Dragonfly Gift Shop, open since July 2026. Amy Wald has cleaned and catalogued the collars recovered downstream and is designing a larger Rainbow Bridge.
What it's like
Free, unstaffed, and open 24 hours a day year-round, which in practice means you park and start walking. There are a few spaces at the west end by the Education Center and roadside room on Boys Camp Road; construction keeps it tight. Stay on the paved walkways - the ground off them is still unstable - and expect a portable restroom rather than plumbing. Leashed dogs are welcome if you clean up, the site is tobacco-free, and the rules ask you not to pick, climb, or wade. Donation boxes sit near the kiosk in the All Twisted Up garden on the west bank and by the weeping cypress on the east. Come Tuesday or Thursday morning, 9:30 to noon, and there are volunteers on site who will tell you exactly what the water took.
The move: Drive out for the last ninety minutes of daylight — the gardens never close and cost nothing — walk the riverbank loop through all twenty plots, find the Rainbow Bridge pet memorial, and stop in Chimney Rock village on the way back to see how the gorge is rebuilding.
📍 Before you go Free and open 24/7 year-round, but the site is an active reconstruction zone: the original bridge is gone, parking is limited by ongoing construction, and you're asked to stay on the paved walkways. Volunteers are on hand Tuesday and Thursday mornings (roughly 9:30–noon) if you want the full story. Dogs welcome on leash. Expect the layout to keep changing as rebuilding continues.
- 📍 Lake Lure
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 3070 Memorial Hwy, Lake Lure, NC 28746
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- The 1927 Lake Lure Inn and Spa — Barely a quarter-mile back up Memorial Highway at 2771 - the same lake, the same storm, and a lobby full of ghost stories to balance out a garden full of real losses.
- Andrews Geyser — The other water feature Helene broke: a gravity-fed 1879 fountain now spraying only intermittently, reachable on the Old Fort side of the same I-40 exit 73 detour.
- Old Fort Arrowhead Monument — Three miles downhill from the geyser by the old depot, which turns the Old Fort leg of the drive into a proper stop rather than a photo pause.
More weird in Asheville
Good to know
Is there actually still a bridge?
No. The 1925 span was closed as unsafe after Helene and demolition began August 18, 2025, though its decorative elements were saved for the new gardens. FEMA awarded the Town of Lake Lure a Section 406 grant on September 16, 2025 toward a replacement pedestrian bridge that would reconnect the east and west gardens. Until then the gardens sit on both banks with nothing spanning between them.
What does it cost and when is it open?
Nothing, and always. It is a public park open 24 hours a day, year-round, with no admission charge and no gate. The organization runs on donations - there are boxes on both banks - and sells commemorative bricks for the pathways at $250. The Dragonfly Gift Shop in the Education Center keeps its own hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
How hard is it to get there now?
The gardens are at 3070 Memorial Highway, at the corner of Memorial Highway and Boys Camp Road at the west end of Lake Lure, just past Washburn Marina and the Town of Lake Lure building. The road from Bat Cave through Chimney Rock Village is passable but reduced to one lane in many sections, so allow more time than the map claims. Parking is very limited by ongoing construction.
Can I still leave a collar for the Rainbow Bridge?
The original structure and its collars were swept away in September 2024. Some were recovered from the banks, the lake bed, and the marina, and artist Amy Wald has cleaned and catalogued them while designing a larger replacement. The organization offers a Rainbow Bridge certificate in the meantime, and asks that anything left on site be a tag or collar only - other items get removed.
Is it worth it if nothing is blooming?
The site is as much a record of the storm as a flower garden right now, so shoulder seasons still read. Volunteers are on hand Tuesday and Thursday mornings, the Education Center runs classes through December, and Chimney Rock State Park reopened in July 2025 if you want more than an hour of daylight out of the drive.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-25