You can't get there from the Greensboro Urban Loop

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Maybe you want to take the family to splash around this weekend at Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe, the water park on the south side of Greensboro. It sits right next to the Greensboro Urban Loop near its interchange with northbound Business 85 and southbound I-85.

You can see Emerald Pointe as you drive by. But you can't get there from the Loop, if you're driving west from the Triangle.

There is no off ramp to northbound Business 85 for westbound Loop drivers.

This missing exit is just one of the myriad mysteries of Greensboro's Urban Loop, where NCDOT has changed the signs again to reroute I-40 back onto its old path through the city's crowded Death Valley corridor (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments). (Why did DOT make the switch? For money.)

It's hard to navigate Death Valley and the Loop and their various interstates. The signs are lacking or confusing. And don't ask Google or Mapquest to help you -- they're both wrong on how they label the interstate routes around and through Greensboro.

You could check directions on the Emerald Pointe website, but some of this info is overdue for an update, too.

The only accurate map I've seen for this messy maze is the official pretty good NCDOT highway map (see the urban area insets on the reverse). Accurate as far as it goes, anyway. Alas, the DOT map does not warn you about the Loop's missing exits.

So here's how to get to Emerald Pointe from Raleigh. You have two options, Loop or Death Valley.

Loop: Take I-40 / I-85 from Hillsborough to Greensboro. Where the Urban Loop branches off to the left (I-85 to Charlotte), you can take the Loop. Get off at US 220 North (exit 122C). Then as Emerald Pointe's website says,

Take Business 85 South towards High Point (exit 79B) to Holden Road (exit 34). At the end of the exit, turn left onto Holden Road. Entrance to the park is on the right.

Death Valley: Take I-40 / I-85 from Hillsborough to Greensboro. Where the Urban Loop branches off to the left, stay in the right lanes (now marked as I-40 and Business 85). Get in left lanes to stay on Business 85 when I-40 forks off to the right. Then, as above,

Take Business 85 South towards High Point (exit 79B) to Holden Road (exit 34). At the end of the exit, turn left onto Holden Road. Entrance to the park is on the right.

Getting there is not, in this case, half the fun.