Location: Crosses the Cherokee National Forest in eastern Tennessee/southwestern North Carolina
Length: 42 miles (67.7 km)
Time To Allow: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Description/Highlights/Points of Interest

Enjoy panoramic vistas as you travel the Cherohala Skyway, winding through the Southern Appalachian high country. Spectacular mountain views of Nantahala and Cherokee National Forests stretch out before you. An impressive variety of flora and fauna can be spotted from a series of pull-offs. Quiet picnic spots, short trails and conveniently located rest stops enhance your visit.

Suggested Itinerary

The Cherohala Skyway connects Robbinsville, NC to Tellico Plains, TN. NC State Highway 143, the beginning of the Cherohala Skyway, starts your journey into some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. Begin your trip in Robbinsville, NC, and visit the Junaluska Memorial and Museum. Junaluska was the prominent Cherokee leader who was credited with saving the life of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He was later awarded citizenship and granted a large tract of land in Graham County. The museum features several large displays of Native American artifacts, most of which were found in Graham County. This site is also the starting point of the famous Trail of Tears, in which more than 15,000 Cherokee Indians were removed from their ancestral homeland in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama and forced to travel over 1,000 miles (1,609 km), under adverse conditions to Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma.

Heading west on Highway 143 from Robbinsville, visit the Snowbird Lodge at the entrance of the Cherohala Skyway. There are numerous activities within its remote mountaintops, such as whitewater rafting, kayaking and canoeing on the Nantahala River and at Lake Santeetlah and hiking and horseback riding through the forests of nearby Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. The forest is named after the soldier and poet of the same name who wrote the poem, “Trees.” The forest, dedicated on the 18th Anniversary of Kilmer’s death in World War I, has a plaque in his honor located on the Lower Loop trail.

For thrill seekers, take a side trip north on U.S. 129 through the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest. Crossing Deals Gap at the Tennessee/North Carolina State line, the Tail of the Dragon is considered by many as one of the world's best motorcycling and sports car roads. These 11 miles (17.7 km) feature 318 exciting curves. The Dragon, as drivers and motorcycle enthusiasts know it, begins on the North Carolina side at Fugitive Bridge with a view of the Cheoah Dam where Harrison Ford jumped in the movie, The Fugitive. It ends 14 miles (22.5 km) across the mountain at the Tabcat Creek Bridge in Tennessee. U.S. 129 climbs through The Slide, a steep series of "S" curves. The road then levels and straightens until a series of curves approaching Deals Gap and the Tennessee State Line.

Turn around to go back to the Cherohala Skyway and enjoy the thrill of The Dragon again. Once back on Highway 143, continue into Tennessee portion of the byway.

The following organizations offer itineraries along the Cherohala Skyway:
American Driving Vacations