Any of you guys ever drive or ride the "Tail of the Dragon"? My Daughter, Wife and I. did it almost 4 years back on a Ural with a side car..it was awesome..tell your story of your tour.. Tail of the Dragon North Carolina/Tennessee Tucked just below Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the sinuous “Tail of the Dragon” is an 11-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 129 between Tabcat Bridge, Tenn., and Deals Gap, N.C. Get ready for 318 curves, many of them monster switchbacks and hairpins, as well as a series of steep “S” curves called The Slide.
Too crowded on weekends with sports cars and sport bikes. Not bad during the week, but watch out for cops and trucks. Cherohala Skyway is also worth the time if you are at the Dragon. Done it many times on various bikes.
Yes I have driven the dragon in a sports car. It is really,really fun in the right car or MC but it can be dangerous. How about coming around a blind switchback and having an 18 wheeler in there taking up both lanes at the same time? Weekends can be lots of traffic of all types. Law enforcement is cracking down there,too. Two riders of cruiser bikes died on the same weekend when I was down there which I didn`t know until I got home and read about it. There are a ton of great roads down there if you like driving. We take vacation down in the area often. Here is a link that tells all about the Dragon. http://www.tailofthedragon.com/index.html Watch this video if you want to see what the truckers do at the Gap.... It isn`t pretty. For some reason it isn`t illegal to run 18 wheelers in there but it damn sure ought to be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQP4SgFGgM
yeah we were down there durring the week days..was really nice and not much traffic it was this time of the year 4 years back..just after I married my bride. any of you guys do this run in your Hot Rods?
I use to live in East Tennessee.At one point that road was considered an inconvience! It has 311 corners in 11 miles. I usually go through there in the early morning.If anyone is running it then,they usually know what they are doing.Later you gets lots of squids who can't hold their line and cross over. A great place to stay is Tapocco Lodge. It is at the foot of it.They have meals+ beer & wine (dry county). It was built by Alcoa in the 30's as a lodge. You can do a gret loop of 130 miles by running the dragon,cutting over,head south and then get on to the Cherohala skyway and come back around.It is over 4000 feet there (sub alpine).It is safe about anytime of day there.
Yeah, I've been riding it since it was just 129 through Deals Gap. ****s what it's become. In warm weather you can't even get away from the crowd on week day's. There are always wanna be sport bikers, Miata's, bicycles, or the worst of all the Fast and Furious rice bomb crowd. If you're lucky enough to get there when there aren't a lot of people you'd better make the circuit as many times as possible because they'll be there soon. More than once I've had some *** bag on a crotch rocket behind me over estimate his abilities and p*** me in my lane, in a switchback and nearly push me right off the side of the damn mountain! I don't mind sharing a lane but I'm not indestructable and I don't want to die so you can shave another 3/10'th's off this run. The sport bike rags have ruined a really great ride in the mountains. Okay, I'll stop ranting now. The Skyway is awesome, (but don't tell anybody.) I remember when they first opened it and I could ride the length of it 3 or 4 times before I ever saw a car or another bike. It sees a lot more traffic now but is still the best drive in the mountains you'll ever take. And in general the *** bags don't try to kill you .
Last time for me was in a Chrysler suv in Jan.Was showing CrazyD this side of the country and damn near got taken out from a tanker truck.Pisser of it is that semis I thought were not even suppose to be on that road......but the prior post states they are... Great place though... Heres a link check out some others ..... http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests...AtdG9kYXltb2MEc2xrA3NjYXJ5ZHJpdmVzLTQtMTUtMDk- also check out this link.
Looks like an awesome ride (or drive) For those of you stuck in the middle of the country, try the Needles Hwy and Iron Mountain road in the Black Hills of S. Dakaota. It does tend to be crowded during Sturgis week though..... Not my video, the music is annoying, so turn down the volumn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0oSSHKseD0
made the trip a few times as a kid(parents were avid backpackers and we camped extensively throughout the Appalachians) Scariest was with Gramps, in his 197 Caddy Eldorado, with a blown set of auto-leveling rear shocks...not fun, but the views are fantastic!
Ran it at 3:00 am in spring of '79'. Loaded 48' semi. Got hung up on 2 curves at same time. Tractor banked on one and trailer still on other. Top of tandem drive tires groumt into bottom of trailer rails. Was so scared I couldn't push clutch in cause knees were jerking. Local driver came by in pickup W/red emergency light and led me thru next 7 miles. Nobody got hurt! Bill.
Did it once in a full size conversion van towing an empty car dolly. There was three "bikers" on crusier type bikes in front of me. One knew how to ride, one was learning, and one picked his new bike up the day before. The last guy was holding us all up. He was squaring the curves off about three times per curve at about 25 m.p.h. I was trying to keep my momentum up and was slightly spinning the inside tire on some of curves. I kept running right up on the last guy. He was getting nervous, kept looking behind himself, which slowed him down more. After about five miles they pulled over and let me by. Quite the riders, holding up a van and trailer.... If you do that ride and have time try the road from Franklin to Highlands which isn't too much further down the line....That one most semi drivers are banned by their companies from going up, they have to go around to Georgia and come up the "easy" side...even got a waterfall you can drive behind at the top.
Me and a buddy happened down 129 back in the 80's in my 56 Chevy after taking the 1-way road out of the Smokies (which resulted in flattened exhaust tips from all the "drive-thru" creek crossings) Been back several times through the 90's in the 56 and my 64 Galaxie. Just thought it was a nice road to drive then started hearing about what it has become. A trip down it a few years ago resulted in quite a few encounters with racer wannabes. Fortunately I was driving my 89 Caprice ex-cop car so it was no big deal, probably startled a few of them coming around curves. There are so many awesome roads down there, and I have to agree that the trip from Franklin to Highlands is a favorite. Last trip through the area we were quite disappointed to see so many homes on ridgetops where there used to be such great views. One place south of Highlands, in GA I think, had a pull-off with a waterfall coming off the top of the mountain. Last time the waterfall was gone and houses lined the ridge. What a waste!
Parsons Branch road from Cades Cove, it comes out about half way through the twisties. Everybody should drive that little jewel in the spring or fall at least once before they die. I think it's reopened after being closed for repairs for a long time. And I'm with you, ridge top development ****s!
Is that Two Wheels Only camp site still there, or did it get overcome by the crowd? Cool place... I stayed there one night and then rode north the next day on my way to Montreal, the hard way, on my Concours. Gary
Hey guys, Join the "HAMB Road Trip Network" Social Group: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=297 And post all this cool info there!
Did it once a couple of years ago with the local Mustang club. The sport bike crazies and the Fast and Furious tuner car idiots coming in the opposite direction scared the **** out of us! We've got roads right here in East TN that are just as much fun without the wanna-be stunt drivers.
Stopped going there regularly in the late 80's, it had already gotten to out of control, went back in the mid 90's and knew I made the right choice. A lot more fun and safe on the racetrack. Lot's of fun back then, but VIR kicks it's ***.... sorry.
How wide is it? Each lane that is. There may not be signs up, but the wider trailers are supposed to have at least twelve foot lanes, and someplace there has to be a cheat sheet that tells you roughly what the minimum diameter curve is that a given length trailer can go around. I know they used to have signs going into Glacier national park that stated if you were over 33 ft in length, you had to take a different route. If Truckers are going through the Dragons tail, common sense is truly dead.
I think that section of road was posted a few years back due to people not realizing they cant fit a big rig thru this strech of road and the cost to get them out of being hung up on the road, the dangers of such and the ensuing back ups it causes.. I think I remember seeing a sign saying something about weight and length and height restrictions for the road before you enter it..Now if they are entering it after it being posted..I think there is a stiff fine for that. I think it would even include large travel trailers too.. I think anything over a normal pick up truck hauling a pop up would be about the limit.. if you were much longer than that you or your trailer would be constantly crossing the doubble yellow line on every curve..And that is against the law right there..if Mr. Smokey the Bear were to see this , you more than likely would get a ticket.
Check out hwy 7 in Arkansas, beautiful drive , very twisty, when the signs say "curve 5 mph" you best believe it. Pe*** Jean Mountain to Mountain Home , Mountain View, etc.
I've been through a few times in my wifes 350Z as well as my 72 Chevy Pickup... The gap is a lot like the HAMB... Some people don't "get it". It's not a racetrack and if you're driving so fast that you're unable to maintain you're lane...slow your *** down!! The first time I ever went was in the 350Z. I made a couple p***es through there to get a feel for the road before picking up the pace... Came through again and felt like I was flying... til I looked in the rearview and saw the old woman on my *** in a trailblazer with her grandkids strapped in the backseat. She was obviously local and knew the road like the back of her hand. Cool place. Not somewhere you really want to be on a weekend.
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