Driving the Foothills Parkway

[Ronnie]

My daughter and I had a great day on the Foothills Parkway today. The Parkway follows the top of a mountain with breathtaking views of the Smoky Mountains in the distance. I had been on it before but since a new section (16 miles) has recently been added my daughter thought we should check it out.  I'm glad we did. Some of the views from the new section are spectacular. 

 

The Parkway starts near the entrance to a curvy section of road called the Tail of the Dragon on Hwy 129. I couldn't pass up getting a photo of my Reatta with the steel dragon in the background that welcomes you to the Tail of the Dragon.

 

With the new section of the Parkway now open there is a total of about 50 miles of driving you can do without ever seeing anything but nature. No houses or anything. Only a nice road and lots of parking lots where you can pull over and enjoy the views.  If you are ever in East Tennessee you should drive across the Foothills Parkway.

 

The new section of the Parkway has two long (and high) bridges. I stopped in the middle of one of the bridges to get a shot of the Smoky Mountains in the distance. You can see why the Cherokee Indians called them "Shaconage” which means “land of the blue smoke”.

 

If you want to do something different with bales of hay for a Fall decoration this year, here is an idea.   This bear was just past the end of the Parkway. It is stacked hay bales that are painted black. It's about 20 feet high.