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Take in mountaintops, valleys on 36-mile road in N. Carolina
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Feb 24, 2008
ROBBINSVILLE, N.C.: The Cherohala Skyway is not the Blue Ridge Parkway, America's most-visited park, but it wants to be.
The high-altitude, 36-mile road was built for its scenery.
It is a winding, remote two-lane road that offers looks at forested mountaintops and deep valleys.
The route runs along the crest of the Unicoi Mountains and connects western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
Unicoi is a Cherokee term that means white, hazy or foggy, and it fits because forested valleys are often filled with blankets of fog that often drape the mountaintops, too.
The skyway ties together the two national forests that provide its name: the 517,000-acre Nantahala in North Carolina and the 640,000-acre Cherokee in Tennessee.
The roadway — it lies south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park — was completed in 1996 at a cost of $100 million.
It runs 36 miles between Santeetlah Gap 11 near Robbinsville, N.C., and Tellico Plains in Tennessee. It's an additional 11 miles into Robbinsville.
The skyway climbs to its highest overlook at 5,390. There are 15 pull-offs and eye-popping vistas everywhere. Much of the skyway is above 4,000 feet in elevation.
It is at its colorful best at sunset and when the leaves are changing colors.
The skyway also provides access to hiking trails, a campground, scenic waterfalls and some very wild country
But the skyway, a national scenic byway, will always be known as the Wagon Train Road.
In the late 1950s, some Kiwanis Club members in eastern Tennessee joked that the only roads connecting to North Carolina were so bad that a wagon train was needed to get through.
At that time, Wagon Train with Ward Bond and Robert Horton, was one of the most popular television shows.
In June 1958, the community of Tellico Plains (population 860) organized a wagon train with 67 old-fashioned wagons and 325 equestrians heading east on dirt roads through the mountains to North Carolina.
In 1960, the wagon train grew to 105 covered wagons with steel wheels and 776 horseback riders.
The repeated caravans through the southern Appalachians got plenty of media attention including Life magazine.
In 1963, Congress allocated $6 million to start the project. The road was initially to connect from Tellico Plains to Murphy, N.C., but highway planners turned the eastern terminus into Robbinsville (population 750).
Work on the skyway got started in 1965, but the work was halted for 13 years when 21 environmental groups objected to the highway.
The wagon trains continued to roll (except in 1990) until 1996. That's when the skyway was completed and dedicated.
Officially, the Cherohala Skyway (that's
pronounced chair-oh-HAY-la) is state Route 143 in North Carolina and state Route 165 in Tennessee.
It was designated a U.S. Forest Service byway in 1993 and a Federal Highway Administration byway in 1998.
Lonesome, scenic drive
It takes about two hours to drive the skyway one way, depending on the number of stops you make.
There is a small visitor center at Tellico Plains (elevation 920 feet).
The skyway is a long, lofty, lonesome highway with no connecting roads. Traffic is super light.
The scenery is first-rate as you traverse a wild country with few signs of civilization. There are no crossroads, no gas stations, no restaurants along the skyway.
The steep, rugged terrain resulted in the one-time Cherokee hunting grounds being the last corner of North Carolina to be settled.
In fact, sparsely populated Graham County is the the only North Carolina county that does not have a four-lane road.
To the north of the skyway in North Carolina lies the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness and the Citco Creek Wilderness.
To the south of the two-lane road in Tennessee is the Bald River Gorge Wilderness, Snowbird Creek and to the south the Snowbird Mountains.
It's been said there are nearly 100 twists and turns on the skyway that exceed 90 degrees.
Motorcyclists love it, along with the nearby Tail of the Dragon (U.S. 129). They can do both routes on a 130-mile loop.
It is remote and, at night, very desolate.
Unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway that gets millions of vehicles, the skyway averages about 800 vehicles a day, although traffic can be heavy at times.
Lofty views
If you stop at the Unicoi Crest Overlook at 4,470 feet in elevation, you can see three states: North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia (to the southwest).
At Spirit Ridge (elevation 4,950 feet), you can hike a paved trail that is handicapped-accessible through a hardwood forest.
I stopped at Hooper Bald Trailhead at 5,290 feet.
A quarter-mile hike took me to one of the mysterious mountain balds or grassy areas that are found atop peaks in the Appalachians from Virginia through Tennessee and the Carolinas to northern Georgia.
This bald provides some stunning vistas of wild country to the south in the rugged Snowbird Creek watershed.
It is filled with rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurels and mountain myrtles, along with blueberries, huckleberries and wintergreen.
It is also where George Moore operated a hunting preserve in the early 1900s. He used wagons in 1912 to haul in live buffalo, elk, mule deer, Russian boars, wild turkeys and ring-necked pheasants. The boars escaped and their descendants are thriving in the southern Appalachians where they devastate forests with their foraging.
A side road from the skyway will take visitors to Bald River Falls with its 90-foot falls.
Snow is common on the skyway from mid-November through mid-April, especially at higher elevations.
It really is 15 degrees cooler atop the skyway than in Robbinsville or Tellico Plains.
Other activities
The roadway, a one-time Indian trading path, is maintained by the two states with amenities maintained by the Forest Service.
There is one campground just off the skyway: 100-unit Indian Boundary Campground on the Tennessee side. It is open from April through September. Picnicking, swimming and biking are also available there.
You can paddle the rapids and fish for trout along the Tellico River on the Tennessee side.
Not on the skyway but within a few miles of its eastern terminus (elevation 2,660 feet) lies the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.
It is a tract of 3,600 acres of old-growth hardwoods that was dedicated in 1936 in memory of the journalist-poet-World War 1 soldier who wrote the poem Trees. The tract contains trees that are up to 20 feet in circumference and up to 150 feet tall.
For North Carolina information, contact the Nantahala National Forest, Cheoah Ranger Station, 1133 Massey Branch Road, Robbinsville, N.C. 28771; 828-479-6431. The Web site is http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc.
For Tennessee information, contact the Cherokee National Forest, Tellico Ranger Station, 250 Ranger Station Road, Tellico Plains, TN 37385; 423-253-2520. The Web site is http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/cherokee.
You can get tourist information from the Graham County, N.C., Travel and Tourism Authority, 12 N. Main St., Robbinsville, NC 28771; 828-479-3790 or 800-470-3790. The Web site is http://www.grahamcountytravel .com.
You can also check with the Monroe County, Tenn., Department of Tourism, 105 College St., Suite 6, Madisonville, TN 37354; 423-442-9147 or 800-245-5428. The Web site is http://www.monroecounty.com.
You can also get skyway information from http://www.cherohala.org and from http://www.cherohala.com.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
ROBBINSVILLE, N.C.: The Cherohala Skyway is not the Blue Ridge Parkway, America's most-visited park, but it wants to be.
Get the full article here.
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