On Thursday, we headed for the Great Smoky Mountains. We had
beautiful weather and great roads and blue skies.
We checked out the Cumberland Mountain State Park. This was a
very small park with few amenities.
True to Tim’s reputation for finding the most obscure roads to ride,
he led us up the Mount Roosevelt Scenic Overlook. There is nothing
like traveling upward at a 35 degree angle to make you glad lunch has
not been served! But, the reward for this perilous road was a beautiful
scenic view from the top – if only I could have stopped thinking about
the trip down!
After a quick lunch we made our way into the Great Smoky Mountain
National Park. This is so beautiful and contains some of the coolest
roads a motorcyclist could ever ask for. Since this is a National
Park – we will not be able to count it as an additional park for our list.
We made our way to Pigeon Forge and checked out the Harley shop in
town. We found our motel and discovered an overpopulated town with
a huge car show going on. We did venture out for BBQ (Tom’s favorite)
later in the evening.
Thursday’s mileage 246.
On Friday, September 11th, we took a break from the State Park
search long enough to take on the Dragon’s Tail at Deal’s Gap. It
was a very busy place for motorcycles that day. I was not overly
impressed with this ride. We have definitely been on more
treacherous roads. The danger here is the other motorcycles on
the road.
And wouldn’t you know, at the end of this trek is a BBQ
place – Tom was in heaven.
Our next state park was Fort Loudoun State Historic Area. This
was a small park with some camping and boat ramps for the lake.
Our last State Park stop was the Hiwassee State Scenic River Park. We
did not make it to this park in time to visit the office and there really
wasn’t much too see.
We ended our day by Chattanooga.
Friday’s mileage 192.
Saturday morning we headed for the Chickamauga Battlefield.
Chickamauga is the second largest battlefield (Gettysburg is the largest)
and took place September 18 – 20, 1863. There is a large museum
located on the property which offers a great little movie for you to
watch and a huge collection of Civil War guns. We were very fortunate
to have a guide relate stories of the battle and demonstrate the firing
of a Civil War gun. (He would not let me try it.)
There are monuments all over the grounds of this battlefield, placed
there in memory of the fallen soldiers. One of these monuments is
an 85 foot tower that you can actually walk to the top of. Our NE
friends were breathing rather heavy when they were back on solid ground.
We trekked upward to the Lookout Mountain Battlefield. This is located by Rock City and in Point Park. Not a lot to see here except for the view from the mountain.
Tim was able to include ‘Goat Highway’ (Hwy 145) on the way home. This is a favorite road of ours and we do like to share our favorite routes.
Saturday’s mileage 416.
There is a great view of the Smoky Mountains behind us!
Here we are at the end of the Dragon's Tail.
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