Tail of the Dragon Thread

[Mishimoto]

One of our co workers recently took his WRX to Deals gap and had a blast on the Tail of the Dragon.
Anyone have interesting stories, images or video from the Dragon? Post them up.





318 curves in 11 miles sounds like a blast to me!

[mckpat03]

It's definitely awesome. I've been there twice. I think some of the other roads in the area are better, though. The whole area is amazing, really.

Edit: Good idea starting a collective thread about it. I plan on going back next year.

[Mishimoto]

Originally Posted by mckpat03

It's definitely awesome. I've been there twice. I think some of the other roads in the area are better, though. The whole area is amazing, really.

I understand it gets pretty hectic/congested there at times. Any you can recommend more towards our area?

[DPancoast]

I've been there twice as well with team-integra.net. It's def one of the nicest, quietest areas I've been in my life. We go for a week at a time (wed or thursday though mon/tues) and its the perfect amount of time. We stay at Fontana Village and it is affordable and pretty dang nice for what it is.

Very secluded, very scenic, etc. The tail is def a top 3 of mine for roads driven on. However I agree with the above that there are roads in the vicinity that are more fun and defiantly less congested.

We go in August and it seems to be a great time of year. The locals are very friendly and accepting of us as well. I don't have any crazy stories or anything. But it is def a trip I look forward to the second we leave our cabin after the short stay.

The road itself gets frustrating at times but then I always remember its public, and its just how it goes. But there are runs where I have been by myself with one other car and there's nothing like it.

The worst thing about going there is the 11 hour drive to/from. It's brutal but it's worth it in the end. The no cell service is a nice vacation from the world.

I have a ton of pictures but I'll post them from my laptop later.

[jjm4life]

Went in early June mid week this year. No traffic/cops. Make sure you hit the cherohola skyway while you're there.

[Mishimoto]

Originally Posted by DPancoast

I've been there twice as well with team-integra.net. It's def one of the nicest, quietest areas I've been in my life. We go for a week at a time (wed or thursday though mon/tues) and its the perfect amount of time. We stay at Fontana Village and it is affordable and pretty dang nice for what it is.

Very secluded, very scenic, etc. The tail is def a top 3 of mine for roads driven on. However I agree with the above that there are roads in the vicinity that are more fun and defiantly less congested.

We go in August and it seems to be a great time of year. The locals are very friendly and accepting of us as well. I don't have any crazy stories or anything. But it is def a trip I look forward to the second we leave our cabin after the short stay.

The road itself gets frustrating at times but then I always remember its public, and its just how it goes. But there are runs where I have been by myself with one other car and there's nothing like it.

The worst thing about going there is the 11 hour drive to/from. It's brutal but it's worth it in the end. The no cell service is a nice vacation from the world.

I have a ton of pictures but I'll post them from my laptop later.

Very cool, a week sounds like a nice trip. Looking forward to your pictures.

[mckpat03]

Originally Posted by Mishimoto

I understand it gets pretty hectic/congested there at times. Any you can recommend more towards our area?

Oh, sorry, I meant other roads in the area of Deal's Gap/Smokey Mountains/NC-TN border/etc.

28 is really fun, as well as the Cherohala Skyway. The Skyway was my favorite, I think. I hear the Foothills Parkway is awesome, as well as some others.

Originally Posted by DPancoast

I've been there twice as well with team-integra.net. It's def one of the nicest, quietest areas I've been in my life. We go for a week at a time (wed or thursday though mon/tues) and its the perfect amount of time. We stay at Fontana Village and it is affordable and pretty dang nice for what it is.

Very secluded, very scenic, etc. The tail is def a top 3 of mine for roads driven on. However I agree with the above that there are roads in the vicinity that are more fun and defiantly less congested.

We go in August and it seems to be a great time of year. The locals are very friendly and accepting of us as well. I don't have any crazy stories or anything. But it is def a trip I look forward to the second we leave our cabin after the short stay.

The road itself gets frustrating at times but then I always remember its public, and its just how it goes. But there are runs where I have been by myself with one other car and there's nothing like it.

The worst thing about going there is the 11 hour drive to/from. It's brutal but it's worth it in the end. The no cell service is a nice vacation from the world.

Agree with everything here, especially the bold. I'll have to look into Fontana Village next time. So far I've stayed in Robbinsville, NC (another half hour or so down 129) and in the Marysville/Alcoa area of TN. Robbinsville was nice because it was still really secluded and was a very small town filled with other visitors to the area and the people were extremely friendly. Marysville was also really cool because we went out and checked out the nightlife and went to the bars and whatnot.

I think a week would be perfect for exploration's sake. I'd love to go down for more than a weekend.

[mckpat03]

Some pics (nothing special):





Highest point on the skyway (had to hike a trail to get there):

[Mishimoto]

^ Second image is incredible!

[DPancoast]

The only thing about Fontana dam is that they host events often. We share the same weekend as a huge mountain biking group and it gets really frustrating then.

Can't drive around the village at will... Have to wait for bikes to start/stop/go by. Food menus change because of the crowd size, etc.

The other thing is that you need to book way in advanced. I book in March for an August trip and barely get the cabin I want (willow one bedroom) but there are many options for lodging there.

The foothills parkway is freakin awesome and I enjoy 28 a lot in all directions.

[DPancoast]

Heres some of my pics. I have a ton but i'll put up the ones that show the area, and not just the cars haha



The most impactful (no pun intended) you will see. The "Tree of Shame"... honestly some of the stuff is heartbreaking



The lake is like this every morning. Quite calming







Others:























I would hunt for my pics from the photogs on the dragon, but it takes too long lol

[Chris B.]

I went for the first time this past summer. I was there at the same time as DanPan, but not in his group. I decided to drive there because it was only a couple hours out of my way when I was heading south and adding a day to my trip to drive on the Tail of the Dragondidn't matter to me since I had plenty of time off. I wouldn't make an 11+ hour trip trip just to drive route 129. If you are going to go there, also spend some time in Ashville, NC and enjoy the shops, restaurants, and nightlife. Make it part of a longer trip. Head to the Tail of the Dragon one day of the trip. While I was there, I met a few motorcyclist from PA that drive most of the way down on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The trip took them two days. They make a long vacation out of the trip there and back stopping at other places along the way. Due to the high levels of weekend traffic, you are better off going during a week day.

There are many other great roads in the area that are fun too. Hellbender/Moonshiner 28 is a lot more fun because of all the sections with a 55 MPH speed limit. If you go, explore the other roads in the area and try driving the Devil's Triangle and the Diamondback. You can find quite a bit of info about the area's roads here:
http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

One bad thing about the Dragon is the low speed limit. There is a good police presence, even on week days. If you go above 39 MPH near the police, you are likely going to get a ticket. That's why I think the other roads in the area are more enjoyable. Many of them have higher speed limits.

I also found that if you do drive the Dragon with some enthusiasm, many of the sport bike riders become annoying. Even when they are leaning and knee dragging around corners, they can hold up a good handling car with somewhat sticky tires. A few guys on sport bikes approached me when I stopped at one end of The Dragon because they couldn't understand how they couldn't lose a Mustang on the Dragon. I told them the suspension wasn't stock, but also pointed out the 540 tread wear all season tires on the car. Thankfully, most of the sport bike riders would pull over when they were holding me up.

You will also run into people driving slow to look at the scenery or locals that drive slow to pi$$ off the people who come to their road to drive fast. The best time to avoid this is to drive it early in the morning.

I also ran into the issue of people taking motor homes with trailers on the dragon and I saw one 18 wheeler drive right past a parked police officer in NC onto the Dragon and the police officer didn't even bother to pull the truck over. Long trucks are banned from route 129(The tail of the Dragon) because its a safety hazard.

Just remember nobody has good cell phone reception in that area and if you crash, it may be a while until help arrives because someone will have to drive until they reach a land line.

After reading all that, it sounds like it wasn't a good experience for me, but honestly I enjoyed it. Its great to be able to say I drove on the Tail of the Dragon many times in one day. However, its not worth the trip just to drive on it. Go with a bunch of friends and make it part of a larger trip. Drive on the other roads in the area. Stop at other places on the way down and back. Also visit some of the cities that are less than 2 hours away. If I drove there just to drive on the Tail of the Dragon I'd be disappointed.

Originally Posted by Mishimoto

318 curves in 11 miles sounds like a blast to me!

After watching a friend's video and my own along with experience driving there, I don't believe its 318 curves in 11 miles. The only way I could count 318 curves on the videos was if you counted a curve every time you had to make a steering correction in the middle of curve because the radius of a curve changed. To me that's not two or three curves, its one curve with a changing radius.

[mckpat03]

Good pictures Dan. I never got to check out the dam the two times I was there. Next time I'm going there for sure. I've been in half a rush the two times I've been there and always feel like I can't do much exploration. One of these times I want to focus a little less on the driving and more on just enjoying the seclusion and exploring the mountains and lakes and whatnot.

[Mishimoto]

Awesome pictures and good advice guys!

[SikneSS]

me and a big group of friends from another website will be going in a couple weeks. this will be our 3rd year going, we get about 25 cars each year and have a blast every year. only downfall is that it's an active road for the locals, so you end up getting stuck behind some slow moving cars. it's really cool seeing the groups of car/bike enthusiasts like Minis, Zs, Corvettes, GTOs, Doucattis, etc., even Ruckus owners. haha! it's a great time with tons of great scenery, i highly recommend this trip.

[EvlEgl]

The "318" Curves was just made up by the locals...Noone really knows how many there really are Someone just picked 318 and it stuck...And this was told to me by a guy who used to ride it ALL The time as it was in his backyard basically and he could rip down that road like I've never seen.

I went in 09' with a group of Motorcycles...AMAZING Road...Best time to ride it was during the weekday.

Tennessee has a Grant for the Police to pretty much patrol the area, But it's only for the weekend. You still find them there during the weekday...but there presence is less, WAY less than it is on the weekend.









This was one of my favorite parts of the Dragon...They Call is "Gravity Cavity"





And I didnt Trailer it...I rode the bitch...3,000 Miles in 11 Days...

[Mishimoto]

Nice shots^. Sounds like an awesome road trip.

[mckpat03]

Originally Posted by EvlEgl

And I didnt Trailer it...I rode the bitch...3,000 Miles in 11 Days...

So awesome! Big roadtrip stories FTW!

[DPancoast]

The gravity cavity is def a favorite of mine. I almost spun out this year because it was still a little wet from the rain.

And I was only doing about 40 lol.

My favorite are the 180 degree banked uphill and downhill stuff. Just so cool.

Here is me and a friend going from the overlook back to the village (Fontana). We hit rain on 28 at the end lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NgBy0oX0fY

Another friend and I's full run. This is the best run I had the whole trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0e7fVN0szE

They are both really long. The second one is the best to watch

[Mishimoto]

Very cool Dan!