What better way is there to spend a day than cruising through the Smoky Mountains on a scenic road? The Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers more than 384 miles of scenic roads to explore, offering you a stunning view around every turn. Here are a few ideas for scenic routes that you can drive on your next road trip.
Cades Cove Loop Road
The one lane meandering paved scenic route from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove is a relaxing drive that shows the majestic beauty of the National Park. Along the way you’ll see a lot of historic structures, including farms, homes and churches. The loop also offers you the chance to see wildlife, maybe even some black bears. It is also the access point for Abrams Falls.
Cades Cove
Foothills Parkway
Motorists can enjoy a beautiful 33 mile scenic drive from Chilhowee Lake to Sevier County. This drive features scenic overlooks, picnic areas, hikes, and more. This is the perfect driver’s road, with wide turns, long straight aways, and steady elevation changes. The Foothills Parkway is easily accessed from Pigeon Forge via Wears Valley Road and can take you all the way to the Tail of the Dragon.
Foothills Parkway
Kuwohi Road
A thrilling seven-mile drive, this winding road will take you up to the peak of Kuwohi (formerly Clingman’s Dome), the highest peak in Tennessee. You can park in the parking lot at the end of the road and then take the half mile hike to the very peak to reach the observation tower and admire the breathtaking view from the very top.
Kuwohi
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Turn onto the Historic Nature Trail Road in Gatlinburg and take the six-mile loop to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. This trail offers views of historic cabins, old growth forests and rushing mountain streams along its narrow six-mile stretch of twists and turns. Make sure that you bring the camera – you’ll be in awe of the beauty on every stretch of the track.
Roaring ForkThe road runs beside beautiful views of forest, waterfalls, and mountain streams. To get to Roaring Fork, turn at traffic light #8 off the main parkway in Gatlinburg, TN and continue along the Historic Nature Trail to the Cherokee Orchard entrance to the national park.
Newfound Gap Road
Newfound Gap Road is the lowest drivable pass through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and it is said that driving through this gap is like going from Maine to Georgia in terms of the variety of the forest ecosystems and the foliage. When you start in Gatlinburg you’ll begin driving through hardwood and pine-oak forest, and as you gain altitude you’ll ascend to an evergreen spruce fir forest similar to those in Canada.
Newfound Gap
Tail Of The Dragon
Feeling brave? Experienced riders can take a scenic drive through the Smokies to reach what locals call the Tail of the Dragon, a curvaceous stretch of roadway that sports car enthusiasts and motorcyclists especially love testing their skills on. This road is a challenge for most drivers, as it features 318 twists and turns in the 11 mile journey.
Tail Of The Dragon
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is the nation’s first and longest rural parkway. Construction started on the parkway in the 1930’s as a depression-era public works project, and took over fifty years to complete. Connecting the Shenandoah National Park and The Smokies was a huge undertaking and many standards for engineering and design were pioneered during this feat.
Blue Ridge ParkwayThe Blue Ridge Parkway winds through 469 miles of beautiful forest and mountain terrain between Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The scenery is outstanding and there are many recreational activities to do along the way; picnic area, hiking trails, camp grounds and visitor centers are just a few. There are also restaurants and lodging along Blue Ridge Parkway.
Parkway By Motorcycle
For many of Blue Ridge Parkways visitors, the summer season is their favorite to enjoy the slow paced scenic drive. The summer blooms along the Parkway are beyond comparison. Meadows of black eyed susan, coreopsis, queen Anne’s Lace and butterfly weed line the road. Being designed as a recreational roadway, the Blue Ridge Parkway not only has beautiful scenery, but the 469 miles, including campgrounds, picnic tables, and more, is an excellent to spend a summer day or longer! Certainly one of the best scenic drives in the Smoky Mountains!
Balsam Mountain Heintooga Ridge Road
An exciting drive that overlooks sweeping mountain vistas, the Balsam Mountain/Heintooga Ridge is another excellent adventure in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a one-way gravel road that overlooks some of the most stunning sweeping mountain vistas in the country. Bring some food with you and follow along Heintooga Ridge Road for around nine miles to a beautiful picnic area – where you can stop and enjoy lunch in the fresh air.
From Heintooga there is an opportunity to go back the way you came, or to return to Cherokee by way of Balsam Mountain Road. The first 18 miles of this road are unpaved and the entire is trip is one-way, but it is fine for passenger vehicles. It will take roughly an hour to get to Cherokee on this scenic road.
Cataloochee Valley
Take a trip back in time by driving through the breath-taking Cataloochee Valley. Pick up a tour guide booklet at a GSMR visitors’ center or from the roadside box near the valley’s entrance and learn all about this area’s rich history. This rustic valley is another perfect spot to take in historic structures, including centuries-old churches, a school, a home and several outbuildings. It’s also known as an excellent place to spot the majestic elk which have been reintroduced into the park in recent years.
Access to Cataloochee requires driving down a well-maintained gravel road for two miles. To get there just take the Blue Ridge Parkway to Highway 19. Follow 19 (toward Asheville) through Maggie Valley. Turn left onto Highway 276 N. Just before the entrance ramp to I-40 (but past the gas station), turn left and follow the signs 11 more miles to Cataloochee.
Turkey, elk, deer, and other wildlife also always seems to be on display in Catloochee for visitors to view, and your best chance to see this wildlife is, like other areas in the park, in the morning and evenings around open fields.
