"There are no detours or alternate routes around the construction zone," reads Wake County's American Tobacco Trail construction notice. Since Wednesday, Sept. 2, the county has fully closed a section of the trail near Apex while crews repair a landslide left by Hurricane Helene in 2024. The closure is scheduled to run through the end of October.
On Monday, Oct. 12, a second closure begins. The Town of Apex will close sections of Beaver Creek Greenway near two bridges for repairs through Friday, Oct. 16. For those five days, both of the long routes that Apex walkers, runners and cyclists use have a gap in them. The town's own October calendar has already scheduled its outdoor programs somewhere else, at Apex Nature Park and Pleasant Park.
Two Closures, One Shared Week
American Tobacco Trail | Beaver Creek Greenway | |
|---|---|---|
Closed section | Wimberly Road parking area to the White Oak Creek Greenway entrance | Sections between 201 Homegate Circle, 1607 Grappenhall Drive and 1101 Bexley Hills Bend |
Dates | Sept. 2 through the end of October | Oct. 12 through Oct. 16 |
Reason | Repairs to a 2024 Hurricane Helene landslide | Repairs near two bridges |
Parking | Wimberly Road lot closed; no shoulder parking | Closure signs posted at trail entrances |
Reopening language | "Through the end of October" | By end of day Friday, Oct. 16, weather permitting |
The American Tobacco Trail closure was delayed once already. WRAL reported that the work had been expected to start in August and was pushed back to September. Its story was first posted Aug. 28, 2026 and updated the morning of Sept. 2, the day the closure was scheduled to begin. The repair goes well beyond patching the surface. The county lists removing unsuitable soils, compacting replacement soil, rebuilding the bank with native trees and vegetation, enlarging the ditch at the base of the slope, and installing a drainage pipe that sends excess water to the ditch on the opposite side of the trail.
If you come from the south, you have to turn around at Wimberly Road, and that parking area is closed too. From the north, you can turn around or turn onto White Oak Creek Greenway. That greenway has its own closure, though, between Green Level Church Road and I-540, which the county places "about 1.5" from where it meets the ATT, and there is no detour around it either. On a trip from the north, you hit one closed stretch whichever way you turn.
The county lists four places to get onto the trail while the work is underway:
- New Hill-Olive Chapel Parking Area, 1309 New Hill-Olive Chapel Road, Apex
- White Oak Church Road Parking Area, 1305 White Oak Church Road, Apex
- New Hope Church Road Parking Area, 2584 New Hope Church Road, Cary
- White Oak Creek Greenway entrance, 8232 Green Level Church Road, Cary
Two of the four are in Apex. The other two are across the line in Cary.
Beaver Creek's Bridges, a Year After the Gap Closed
The Beaver Creek closure falls one year after the greenway was joined into a single route. In October 2025, on Great Trails State Day, Apex opened a 1.2-mile Beaver Creek Greenway extension that connects Kelly Road Park to Apex Nature Park. CBS 17 reported that before the extension, the greenway's more than six miles were split into separate pieces. The new link made one continuous route toward downtown Apex.
From Oct. 12 to 16, that continuous route will have breaks again, this time for maintenance. The town's Sept. 29 closure notice gives three addresses that mark the edges of the closed sections: 201 Homegate Circle, 1607 Grappenhall Drive and 1101 Bexley Hills Bend. It asks trail users to plan another route and points them to a work-site map attached to the notice. The map is the most reliable way to see whether your usual entrance is affected. The town expects everything to reopen by the end of the day Friday, Oct. 16. It also notes that weather and other unforeseen conditions could change the schedule.
The 2025 extension shapes this October in a second way. Both ends of it, Kelly Road Park and Apex Nature Park, show up on the town calendar this month.
Apex Nature Park Hosts Most of the Month
The Explore Apex outdoor recreation guide lists two trail types at Apex Nature Park, 2600 Evans Road: natural-surface trails and paved trails. One of them, the Holly Loop, is 0.70 miles long and 5 feet wide, according to the town's trail map. A loop that short brings you back to the parking lot, which is useful on an evening when you're also there for an event.
The Town of Apex October calendar puts four outdoor programs at the park:
- Monday, Oct. 12, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Indigenous Peoples' Day Ceremony at the Apex Nature Park Amphitheater. This is the first day of the Beaver Creek closure.
- Wednesday, Oct. 21, 5 to 8 p.m. Apex Stands United Against Hate, a family event with pizza and refreshments, a community mural, an open conversation with local law enforcement, and a unity walk on the Nature Trail.
- Thursday, Oct. 22, back to back. Explore S'more runs 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the amphitheater. Creek Critter Discovery with Haw River Assembly runs 6 to 7 p.m. at the amphitheater shelter.
- Wednesday, Oct. 28, 5 to 7 p.m. Spooky Tails at Apex Nature Park.
Three of those four fall after Beaver Creek is scheduled to reopen. All four fall before the end-of-October date in the ATT notice. None of them is scheduled on either long corridor. They are set at the amphitheater, the amphitheater shelter, or the park in general, and the one walk on the list uses the park's Nature Trail.
Pleasant Park's Friday Night and Saturday Morning
The other location on the calendar is on the west side, at Pleasant Park, 3400 Pleasant Plains Road. Friday, Oct. 16, the last scheduled day of the Beaver Creek work, has a Drive-In Movie at the Park from 5:45 to 9:30 p.m. The next morning, Saturday, Oct. 17, the town holds its Arbor Day Celebration 2026 at the park's Forest Shelter from 9 a.m. to noon. The event page lists tree planting, park tree care and environmental education activities.
A town diagram of Pleasant Park's amenity area labels a cross country trail entrance and a nature trail. The diagram alone doesn't show whether those paths are open for walking right now. If you're planning a walk around the Arbor Day morning, check with the town before you count on those trails.
That same Friday evening, Oct. 16, the town calendar has three other events. An Invasive Plant Removal Workday runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and the Love Local Fall Into Downtown Fall Harvest Night runs from 5 to 8 p.m. The workday listing gives two different locations. The event-details field names Kelly Road Park at 1609 Kelly Road, while the description places the work at Apex Community Park near the lake-trail entrance. Apex Community Park, at 2200 Laura Duncan Road, has a Lake Trail and nature trails of its own. If you plan to volunteer, confirm the location with the town first.
Middle Creek, Away From Both Closures
The second extension that opened in October 2025 is in a different part of Apex. That 1.1-mile Middle Creek Greenway segment runs between Sunset Lake Road and the Horton Park subdivision, with a boardwalk and two bridges over Middle Creek. According to Apex Suburban Living's coverage, the Sunset Lake Road trailhead has a bike repair fix-it station, a plaza with benches, and an information and map kiosk, and both new corridors were built to be ADA accessible.
Neither the county notice nor the town notice mentions Middle Creek. For a cyclist whose usual ride involves the ATT, a short ride that starts at the fix-it station is one option until November.
What the Calendar Says About November
Wake County gives no reopening date for the ATT beyond "through the end of October." The project has already moved once, from August to September. Until the county posts an update, the end-of-October date is a schedule, not a confirmed reopening. The county takes questions through the trail's Facebook page, at 919-387-2117, or by email at [email protected].
The longer-term link between the two systems is still on paper. CBS 17 reported last fall that Apex planned to connect its greenways to the ATT, giving residents access at New Hill-Olive Chapel Road. Apex Suburban Living described a future Beaver Creek extension through Apex Nature Park toward Richardson Road and the ATT. No timeline had been set, and easements still had to be secured. Until that connection is built, getting from Apex's greenways to the ATT means driving to a trail lot. While the county work continues, that lot is New Hill-Olive Chapel or White Oak Church Road, not Wimberly.
How close a home sits to a greenway or trailhead is part of how Kelly Shields looks at streets across Apex, and closures like these show how much that access can change in a single month. If you're wondering how your home's location relative to a greenway or trailhead affects its value, start with a free home valuation, and Kelly will be glad to talk it through.
