Took a "rideabout" this week up to the Cherohala Skyway, Tail of the Dragon, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Nice little 500 mile jaunt.

The ride from Atlanta to Tellico Plains late Thursday afternoon was typical - everyone rushing to get home or out of town, and of course the Atlanta rush hour traffic was its typical pleasure. At Blue Ridge I got off the four-lane and took GA5/TN68 up to Tellico Plains. Stayed at the Cherohala Motorcycle Resort and had a great visit. Friendly folks, nice facilities, and inexpensive.


The clubhouse/office has a good selection of t-shirts, stickers, maps, and other stuff that you might need for the trip. Good hot coffee in the morning. Friendly folks, clean and private bathrooms.


The cabins are simple, but just perfect for the touring rider. Mine had a full-size bed, air conditioning and heat, and parking at the front door. The grounds are well-kept, with lots of grass and camping areas as well as the cabins.


Got up Friday morning and after a couple of cups of coffee and pastry at a great Tellico Plains bakery, hit the Cherohala Skyway. This is a fantastic roadway, similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway with mostly gentle sweeping curves and plenty of scenery. That is, unless you hit it like I did and choose a day when the cloud cover is hovering at about 4500 feet. Since there are several miles of the Skyway that run at elevations greater than that, on a day like today you get to run through the clouds.




The Skyway has lots to see on a clear day, with many places to "stop and smell the roses". Despite the poor visibility at elevation, everything was quite beautiful, and spring has arrived in the mountains!




At the eastern terminus of the Cherohala Skyway, I turned north on US129, and made a run up the Tail of the Dragon. Deals Gap was crowded despite it being a weekday. But I was able to have a relaxing ride up the Dragon and only had one sportbike buzz by me at a stupid speed.


On the Dragon, there is little time to enjoy the scenery - the curves are coming one after another, and taking your eyes off the road to admire God's creation can put you face-to-face with your Maker real quick! But it is a pretty ride...


On the north end of the Dragon is the Foothills Parkway, which forms the northwest boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's a great ride, similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway with nice sweeping curves and incredible views of the National Park.




What can be said about the Smokys that hasn't already been told? It's simply a fantastic national treasure with wonderful roads, terrific scenery, great facilities. I entered the park on the Little River Road in Townsend, then up over Newfound Gap, and down to Cherokee. Despite the increased traffic and modest speeds, this was a great ride.






And so I finally dragged myself back to the house after an exhausting day. And eager to plan the next one...

 

Great write up John. That has to be the best riding east of the Miss. To bad it takes me 2 days to get there. You are very luck that you are that close. Have you ever been to Helen Ga.? There some nice riding there too.

 

PJ, sounds like a great ride, did similar one last October, had frost on the bike in the morning and it was very cold on my way out. Let me know the next time you head over, I might just like to join you. Good people up there, I stayed at the Microtel in Jeffersonville (I think thats the town).

 

Glad you had a greattrip! Thanks for taking time to share the trip and photos.

 

Psst! Don't post stuff like this 'cause everyone will want to move to our neck of the woods! I am blessed to live in NC and we are a fortunate lot.

When I was up on the Cherohala earlier this month there was still a dusting of snow on some of the roadside. A beautiful ride spring, summer or fall.



I'm not fond of the Dragon-too many crazies and I never know who or what is crossing into my laneon a curve.

Great post!

 

Nice write up great pics, thanks for sharing

 

Looks like you had a great ride!
My wife and I are going to do the same thing on Tuesday.
Have reservations at the same place.
Will be the first time going up there on our Ultra.
Will be close to gvwr, so
I'm planning to take it easy and enjoy the ride.
Will be back in Duluth on Wednesday.
5k service on Thursday.
Thanks for a terrific ride report.

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I agree about the dragon being too quick to enjoy the scenery. If you want to see some beatiful scenery drive east to the asheville area. And then north from there to the Boone area. Plenty of twisties, challenging riding,and the veiws are breathtaking

Just came from there a couple of weeks ago.Rode from the coast of NC to Asheville, was going to stay there a couple of days and then shot down to Myrtle. The area (Asheville) was so nice we cancelled the Myrtle trip and stayed in the mountains. Next year won't come soon enough.

 

Thanks for the write-up and photos!I see that you took the Foothills Parkway.What a beautiful and fun road.Slow,sweeping curves that you can enjoy,unlike the dragon.One of my favorite roads in that area is the Blue Ridge Parkway.I like to get on the parkway in Cherokee and ride it to Asheville.

 

Very nice pictures and nice right up. In the one picture I did notice you had a garmin GPS mounted to the handlebars. Would you mind taking a few pictures of that and describe how you mounted the GPS? I am a garmin fan and going to buy the 6xx series for travel at work and for family travel. I'd like to be able to use it for bike travel too.