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Southeast (Gulf Coast), Texas, United States

Monday, October 19, 2009

Cherohala Skyway & Tail of the Dragon Drives

We started out today by moving the Bus from site 4 to site 3………. since we came in two days early, and site 3 was not available over the weekend.

Once that was done, we headed out to see some scenery…… The Cherohala Skyway, which is one of the drives under the listing of “America’s Byways”.  On the end of it is a section of highway known as “The Tail of the Dragon”.  It’s claim is of “318 curves in 11 miles”.

The following are typical photos to describe the Cherohala Skyway drive:

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 197

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 004 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 001

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 019 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 006 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 011

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 095 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 079

Even the pullouts where scenic and well designed:

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 088 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 089

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 103 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 100

As we got to the highest elevations along the Cherohala Skyway drive (around 5400 ft), we found some ice and snow!  Here are some of those photos:

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 030 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 015 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 023 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 029

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 059 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 044 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 047 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 055 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 056

We also saw a couple of dams, and several waterfalls.  Here is a small collection of them:

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 118 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 121

The above two photos are from the discharge side of the dam.  The following is the upstream side of the dam, and you can see the gates:

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 124

Here is the nicest small waterfall that we saw, as well as the second dam:

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 128 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 187

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 188

The “Tail of the Dragon” drive was especially nice.  The first two pictures are of a tree, dubbed the “Tree of Shame”, and is decorated with motorcycle parts and gear supposedly from accidents on the “Tail of the Dragon” highway.  It is in the parking lot of the Deals Gap store which has priority parking for Bikes!!

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 130Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 131Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 132 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 133 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 138

The following are photos from our drive on the “Tail of the Dragon” highway.  They include the ‘curves’ on the highway, which were hard to depict, and some of the bikes that we observed leaning way over to make the curves:

 

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 172 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 140 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 149 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 151 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 154 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 157 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 166 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 168

Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 196 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 178 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 191 Cherohala Skyway & Dragon's Tail Hwy 192

Today, we drove 135 miles on these roads, and it took about seven hours.  It was one of the best day trips that we have taken outside of Alaska.

When we got back to the campground, many more Tiffins had arrived and set up.  More on that and pictures tomorrow.

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