An amazing fall drive on Cherohala Skyway

Today, Tiffany and I took a drive on a loop that we haven’t done in a long time. Cherohala Skyway goes through two national parks, Cherokee National Forest and Nantahala National Forest, thus “Chero-hala”. All but the last 10 miles or so of the road are in North Carolina, and the eastern end of Cherohala meets US Route 129 just south of the infamous Tail of the Dragon. We decided Friday night that we wanted to see if the leaves had started changing at all. A friend, Raymond Hawkins, came with us to hopefully enjoy the views. Leaving the Louisville/Greenback area, we weren’t too hopeful we would find many leaves changed, but as we started gaining altitude, we started seeing signs of color.

Cherohala Fall Leaves

A great variety of color

Finally we started seeing just vast amounts of changing leaves. The slopes we could see from the road reminded me of the grand finale at a 4th of July fireworks display. Just crazy amounts of colors, but still enough evergreens and “late” changing trees that the yellows, reds, and oranges were all the more vibrant. There was thankfully almost no traffic to speak of, so we took our time and stopped at a few pull-offs to get some photos outside of the car and stretch our legs. At one pull-off we saw a group of motorcyclists, two of them with my favorite motorcycles ever… BMWs.

R1100RS and R75 on Cherohala

After 50 miles or so of beautiful views, we got to the end of Cherohala Skyway and took a short detour to see Fontana Dam near Fontana, NC, which Ray had never seen before. The size of the water control gates is mind-blowing. The TVA did an excellent job of creating a nice little park and museum around the top of the dam. I forgot to take any pictures of that today, but here are a couple from a previous trip Tiff and I took out there. For a frame of reference, those chain link fences above the water gate are about 5′ high.

View from the road across Fontana Dam

Water Control mechanism for Fontana Dam (1 of 2)

Description of Water Control System at Fontana Dam

At last we headed home, and stopped at Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort for “lunch” (it was almost 4:00 pm). They have awesome Pulled Pork sandwiches. Tiff and Ray had Cheeseburgers which were reportedly also amazing. Really, if you ever visit this area, you owe it to yourself whether you’re a motorcyclist or not, to visit Deal’s Gap. It’s an awesome road, and the staff at Deal’s Gap Motorcycle Resort is always great, and their food is excellent and reasonably priced. $21 bought sandwiches, fries, and drinks for 3 of us. We found out they recently have installed a “bar” as well where they have a few domestic brews on tap.

Drove the Dragon back into Maryville, really wishing I’d installed my new Eagle GT tires before this drive. Oh well, maybe next time. I miss that road. I don’t drive it near as much since we sold the Miatas.