Virginia State Route 623 (Bland and Tazewell Counties)

State Route 623 is a secondary state highway in Bland County and Tazewell County, Virginia, United States. Mostly known as Burkes Garden Road, it passes through Burkes Garden, a low area surrounded by Garden Mountain. To the north, SR 623 crosses Garden Mountain at "The Gap" (next to Wolf Creek), and crosses Rich Mountain via hairpin turns, ending at State Route 61 at Gratton. To the south, SR 623 crosses both Garden Mountain and Brushy Mountain via hairpins, intersecting State Route 42 at Sharon Springs. After a short concurrency with SR 42 to the southwest, SR 623 ends at State Route 622, a minor road that parallels SR 42.

Seven miles (11 km) of current SR 623, from Gratton southeast to Burkes Garden, was added to the state highway system as State Route 136 in 1930 and 1931.^[3] An additional mile (2 km) was added in 1932, taking it to a point south of the center of Burkes Garden (West End Road - SR 727).^[4][5] In the 1933 renumbering, SR 136 was renumbered State Route 87; the rest of the road into Bland County was assigned the SR 623 designation when the secondary routes were numbered.^[5] In the 1940 renumbering, SR 87 was renumbered State Route 78 to allow State Route 87 to be used for the connection to North Carolina Highway 87.^[6] In 1944, the route was transferred to the secondary system, with SR 623 extended over it, as it was a "stub end lightly traveled route" with a 1941 annual average daily traffic of 142.^[7] In 2005, that part of SR 623 had an AADT of 590.^[2]

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