A few weekends ago was Farrah’s 2nd hiking adventure in the Smoky Mountain’s National Park. She may have been hiking/camping with a friend, but she wasn’t the only one that got to go on an adventure. I dropped the two women off at Clingman’s Dome on Saturday morning… that was an easy trip, and one I’d made many times before. Knoxville to Maryville, then through Wears Valley and eventually up to the Gap and finally the Dome. The plan was for the women to hike down Forney Ridge spend the night at a camp site and hike back up Forney Creek where I would pick them back up on Sunday. Well, plans changed.
Rather than hiking back up the trail due to injury they ended up continuing down the mountain following Forney Creek to Whiteoak Branch to Lakeshore Trail eventually coming out at the Tunnel at the end of “The Road to Nowhere”. Yes, there really is a road to nowhere. The road is actually called “New Fontana Road” but some maps have it listed as “Lakeview Drive”, which caused a bit of confusion and panic but that’s a story for another day. 
The Road to Nowhere is located in Bryson City, a town that until Sunday I had never been to before. Thankfully I had a navigator that new where to go, and had hiked most (if not all) of the trails in the park. To the rescue we went through towns I had never heard of, on roads I had never traveled, and through some very nice scenery. Just a rough list of places I was Sunday:
- Maryville
- Highway 129 aka “The Dragon”
- The Tunnel at the end of The Road to Nowhere
- Cherohala Skyway
- Tellico Plains
- Madisonville
- Sweetwater
It was quite a trip. I’m not even sure how long I was in the Explorer driving around, it was at least six or seven hours worth of driving.
So, a last minute change of plans, we found another campsite close by.
