I will be coming back from Daytona area in mid May going back to the Northwest I would like to spend a couple of days in the Tennessee area do any of you no good routes through the state to make the most of my time I would really like to do the dragon after hearing you all talk about it.
Thanks Chuck
A lot depends on what route you're taking back to the Northwest and how many days you want to spend in the North Carolina/TN area. There are a LOT of great roads up there, so you could spend a week riding if you wanted to. If I had limited time and wanted to experience the area as much as possible, I'd ride North to Asheville, NC (the downtown area is sort of eclectic in nature), then pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway and ride West all the way to Cherokee, NC. The BRP is a nice leisurely ride with varying altitude, up to about 6K feet. Cherokee is the southern terminus of the BRP (an alternative would be drop down two miles into Maggie Valley, NC off the BRP to spend the night in a biker friendly town). Then you could do a couple of different things: You could hang a right on Hwy 441 and go over the mountains through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. When you got to the other side, you could go into Gatlinburg, TN and spend the night and look around there (it's a tourist spot), or hang a left on Little River Road (a pretty ride) over to Townsend (the quieter side of the Smokies), to Hwy 321, then turn left onto the Foothills Parkway over to Hwy 129. Turn left to do the Dragon. At Deal's Gap (the end of the Dragon), you could do one of two things...hit Hwy 28 (Hellbender), which is another great road, and take it around Lake Fontana to Hwy 143, hang a right over to Robbinsville, NC, then up 129 to hit the Cherohala Skyway over to Tellico Plains, TN, OR stay on Hwy 129 and intersect with the Cherohala Skyway. From Gatlinburg, the route I mentioned would take you the better part of a day, but well worth it. From Tellico Plains, you could either take Hwy 68 South to Hwy 64, then West over to I-75 South into Chattanooga, TN, or you could go over to Maryville, TN, stop at a nice HD dealership (Smokey Mountain HD), then hit I-40 West to Nashville, TN, then to Memphis, TN. Chattanooga is a great place to spend the night...downtown offers plenty of good eats, brews, and the Aquarium if you want to do that. From Chattanooga, you can do I-24 all the way to Nashville, then I-40 on over to Memphis, TN for some Blues and BBQ down on Beale Street. If you prefer non Interstate over to Nashville/Memphis, there are plenty of alternate routes to choose from that are two/four lane Hwys. The possibilities are many, so depending on how many nights you want to spend getting from Asheville, NC to Memphis, TN, if you want to choose that route, would dictate some of the road choices. As mentioned by others, the two most scenic roads would be the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Cherohala Skyway. The Dragon is fun, but very technically challenging, so no time for looking about...you can't take your eyes off the road for a second. The BRP and the Cherohala are big sweeping turns at higher altitudes, so lots of pretty views. The ride on 421 through the Park is also very scenic.
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Topic: Tennessee Ride mid May (Read 2630 times)