Other roads around Gatlinburg

[mattster31]

I'm heading down in two weeks with the SO, and am working on planning rides.

Aside from the usual routes west of Gatlinburg (Dragon, Cherohala, etc) I noticed the 107 (Round Mountain rd) and the 209 which runs up into Hot Springs.

Anyone from the area have some advice on either of these?? or should I not bother? Other suggestions??

 

[sergeantnic]

You can hop on the Foothills Parkway and scoot over to the Dragon. Run that over into NC and then pick up Cherohala.

Both the foothills parkway and the Cherohala Skyway are great roads with very nice scenary and they are highspeed. We ran the Cherohala at 80 - 90 mph!!

The Dragon is fun to do and get the t-shirt but I really didn't care for it that much.

Hellbender 28 is a great road. You can take that over to Wayah Rd which is in Topton and that is a very fun road that runs along a nice mountain stream with tons of picture opportunities.

I'm sure some other folks will chime in with other roads but those are the ones I know of.

 

[CCook82]

Highway 209 south out of Hot Springs is one of the best roads you will ride anywhere. Very twisting with good elevation changes. Roads north of Hot Springs such as 212, 208 etc good also. If you drop down 209, you can take 19 west through Maggie Valley, NC on over to Cherokee, NC. Then take 441 north Through Great Smokies to into south end of Gatlinburg. Try to do thias on week day as weekends are very congested. Stay away from north side of Gatlinburg as traffic is miserable there.