Road recommendations near Asheville / Maggie Valley NC?

[Chuck78]

Looks like we'll be heading down through Daniel Boone National Forest to camp 2 Thursdays from now after work, explore a bit Fri AM in the Red River Gorge area, then head toward Asheville NC and end up at Maggie Valley Sunday-ish (wife has to be there for work Tuesday).



The area is chocked full of the kind of incredible scenery and twisty roads that I love, almost too many to choose! I was hoping some of you could help me narrow down the really critical ones that would be the most to my likings based on your experiencences.



Incredible mountain/cliff/waterfall scenery is tops for me, as well as lots of tight curves with some excellent elevation changes thrown in there. Nicely banked curves and great pavement are a plus, but also the less engineered twisty backroads have a different but equal allure for me. A small amount of straight-ish sweeper roads or 35mph roads can be thrown in as well if they lead to incredible views or link to other amazing twisty bits (the BRP near Maggie is the best section according to the tourism vid)



Fire away... Thanks everybody. Early 38th bday treat for me since the wife will be working at the Wheels Through Time Museum Tues-Mon the weekend of my bday following my visit.



Decent commercialized tourist-drawing video:

https://youtu.be/2X9IfnwxqBE

[Chuck78]

I know the dragon is near there, which I may crack and ride, but I'm really trying to find the "better" roads nearby and avoid it's congestion, commercialization, and low speed limit+LEO presence. Not sure how far away 421 "The Snake" is, but a vid I watched of 2 guys riding that made it seem to be quite the "must-ride."

[marvinsc]

You can catch the Blue ridge parkway near Maggie Valley, very scenic, not terribly challenging. 28 into Robbinsonville at the NC end of the Dragon is fun as well.

[Chuck78]

Brief recap highlights - on our way down from Ohio, we ran US23 most of the way to avoid the interstates. Camped just past Piketon KY in George Washington Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

Hit 23 again Sunday down to 619 (VA?) & were going to take that down to Little Switzerland to hit the Diamondback loop 226a & 226, then the Blue Ridge Parkway & Rt 80 Buck Creek Rd.
619 was AWESOME - narrow mountain road that looked more like it was exclusively just access to the High Knob lookout tower (awesome road - 10mph hairpins, dense forest, big climb to the top - great views at top lookout tower). Well just beyond the top and several gravel Forest service access roads to other Pisgah National Forest points of interest, 619 turned into a Forest Service gravel road of another name. Went down a bit until it got very steep and hit a 10mph gravel hairpin and the wife slid out & hurt her ego. Turned around and went back on 23 south. Very passable gravel if careful, JUST DONT FORGET OR PANIC AND HIT YOUR FRONT BRAKE!!!!!

Continued South & got off 23 at (TN?) 352, nice road! Took it to (NC?)212 (same road different sate) which was awesome & fairly twisty, took a left on 208 (good&twisty) & then to Hot Springs, a very quaint little rustic town with people riding horseback through the streets like they were automobiles! City streets mo banners read "Hot Springs NC, An Appalachian Trail Community." Paid 60 cents per gallon more for gas there as its at the north end of 209 "The Rattler" with no other gas within 30-40 miles. 209 was AWESOME through Pisgah. Fresh pavement first 4 miles. Then patchwork after that where they take a section out half the lane width from the shoulder for 30-60 feet and repaved it. The first 5 miles here were like the Dragon but better, aside from loose asphalt cinders from patchwork in progress, & dodging gravel from trucks with trailers or busses wandering into the shoulder and kicking up gravel.
Trucks with ANY trailers should not be allowed on this road at all... dragging gravel from the shoulder on the tight 15mph hairpins all over. This section was very tight and very awesome, mountain climbing a small mountain through a beautiful section of dense forest. Pisgah & Nantahala National Forests are awesome.



209 past that was a nice meandering winding valley road, then climbed over another foothill or smaller mountain which was good fun, but not as extreme as the other. This dumped us out near out destination of Maggie Valley NC's Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum where my wife was working the Wall of Death show this coming week/weekend. Camped with the crew, got to stay in the gatehouse cabin one night.

Break in the rain, gotta pack up bike. To be continued.

[Chuck78]

Monday we ventured out quite a lot and rode the Blue Ridge Parkway from us19 southwest of Maggie Valley NE toward other sections of Pisgah near Asheville NC. from the US19 intersection of BRP NE to the 6500ft highest point of the roadway on BRP was quite possibly the best mountain scenery views I've seen, particularly just beyond 19 at the first good overlook and the following curve after that. Stacked layer upon layer of mountains in the distance... beautiful.

We road the Parkway quite a ways to 215. Only a half a dozen curves were a max sporty speed of 45mph, the rest were mellow sweepers but basically ENDLESS amounts of good sweepers. It'd be a lot of fun at 55mph, but 45 allows decent fun in the curves and some time to catch the amazing views... after all, this road was basically built around amazing views

Another break in the rain, to be continued

[Chuck78]

One of my favorite loops ever was right here @ 215&BRP. 215N to 276S to BRP southwest.... very very awesome. Venture off the triangle loop down 276 a bit further to Looking Glass Falls and maybe do the hike to Looking Glass Rock - a massive granite dome that sticks up above all the lower mountain terrain and can be viewed for many miles off the BRP between NC215&US276

NC215 & US276 were right up there with the most ultimate of lower to medium speed mountain twisties. Both had odd pavement, "very grippy" as a review I read stayed. In excellent shape as far as almost no cracks/potholes, but a somewhat rough texture that looks similar to a tar and chip road after the gravel has been bedded in, but it was asphalt. Very grippy is right. I noticed a little extra wear on my tires after that, the rubber was a little more coarse looking, but I wore it all down further from the additional riding we did and it's all smooth again.

If I recall correctly, 215 was more 20-40mph turns and very fun and flowing. Some tighter. LOTS of elevation change! US276 was the tighter of the 2, many 15-35mph curves, with far more 20mph curves than 215. Both are a MUST RIDE, loop both directions, really. BRP is pretty standard fare there for the area. Moderately fun Neverending sweepers, AMAZING VIEWS...
Also while on the BRP between 215&276, stop at the Graveyard Fields and check out the 2 falls there, & downstream (NE of there ) Google for directions to check out Skinny Dip Falls, it's right past the Graveyard Fields falls a short bit. You can see down from the ridge one of the falls when coming SW on the BRP.

Further NE on the BRP you intersect Buck Creek Rd Rt 80, very twisty portions of this around the Parkway for sure. You can loop this down to (Johnson Creek Rd??? I forgot! to a fairly straight US or state route then to 226 to 226a around the Little Switzerland area, which was pretty darn awesome on 226a. Then loop back onto the BRP at Little Switzerland, back to Buck Creek Rd Rt 80

[Chuck78]

US441 through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was probably my least favorite motorcycle ride of all the destination areas I hit. *It was nice, but generally lower speed limit than the 45mph BRP even, mostly 35mph & a lot of 25mph zones. More traffic by far..some nice sights, more up close views of cool mountains in the very near distance, slightly different scenery than similar views on the BRP.

The best mountain view(s) of the whole trip were definitely from the BRP near the mid 450-something mile range just south of US19/Maggie Valley exit, the 1st real overlook looking back over the edge of Pisgah(?) and over the Cherokee Reservation land and then into the Smokies toward Clingman's Dome (highest peak in the park). Very impressively stacked cascading mountain ridges one after another piled up to the sky. I wish I took a photo of this. I didn't have much time for photos, and was very suited up with cold*weather gloves and all. I have also gotten very jaded on cell phone pictures, after realizing that the reason things don't look as impressive and cell phone pictures is because all cell phones have wide-angle lenses that flatten out the hills and straighten out the curves.

High Knob Lookout off of VA(?)-619, nicely flattened mountainscape thanks to smartphone wide angle lense cameras!


I keep thinking there has to be some app or filter that will un-wide-angle lens the pictures so they look more like what we see with our naked eyes, i.e. far more spectacular &*impressive.



Unfortunately I did not make it down to the number one most widely recommended road amongst all people I consulted on for roads advise, the Moonshiner 28, or rather the*Hellbender 28 section. Did not make it to Wayah either. Next time.



I realized one big difference in this area vs the NE WV Ridge & Valley Province if mountains in the Monongahela *& over the VA border into George Washington Jefferson National Forest. There are many more easily accessible epic waterfalls in the Smokies/Pisgah/Nantahala/Black Mountains/Craggy Mountains regions just southwest of the end of the Ridge & Valley mountain topography. More randomly staggered mountains vs 30+ mile long ridges with valleys in between. Makes for better waterfalls and probably a slightly higher concentration of very twisty roads. WV is still very high up on a pedestal for me due to proximity & terrain however. The Harman VA to Hinton WV section of US33 at the easternmost WV/VA border crossing is still my top favorite section of road anywhere. Soooo flowing, nicely banked curves on the WV side of the mountain, great views, big elevation changes... the proximity to Reddish Knob/Reddish Knob Rd & US250 over the same mountain, Smoke Hole, & the ride to the top of Spruce Knob... and WV-72 for the incredibly remote & tight stretch... my heart definitely feels very at home in NE WV still. Too bad the Asheville area is so far away otherwise it'd be the same for me, a home away from home.



I skipped 197 & another route further north through Pisgah, & opted not to go out of the way to continue on US 421 to the 421 "The Snake" section as it was out if the way for us, but these areas more north of Asheville also deserve some good recognition. I was quite impressed with video footage of riders on 421 The Snake...can't wait to go back to this area when I have more time. This trip was too rushed, rainy, & cool. My buddies at my favorite vintage Japanese motorcycle shop basically all unanimously said "take me with you next time you ride to Asheville!"