Driving Trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Driving Trails
in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Enjoy nature at its finest from the comfort of your motor vehicle. Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers breathtaking views on its many motor nature trails. These driving trails provide pullover areas so you can capture the beauty of the Smokies on camera. There are 384 miles of road in the Smokies. Most are paved, and even the gravel roads are maintained in suitable condition for standard passenger cars. Travel speeds on most of the park's paved roads average 30 miles per hour.

Road	One-way Mileage	Driving Time	Location	Road Condition
Balsam Mountain Road	9	30 min.	Blue Ridge Parkway	Two-way, paved
Cades Cove Loop	11	1 hour	Cades Cove	One-way, paved
Cataloochee	6	30 min.	I-40 at U.S. 276	Two-way, dead end
Cherokee Orchard Road	3.5	15 min	Gatlinburg to Roaring Fork	Two-way, paved
Foothills Parkway East	6	15 min.	Hwy. 321, Cosby	Two-way, paved
Foothills Parkway West	18	30 min.	U.S. 321N to U.S. 129	Two-way, paved
Heintooga Ridge	6	1 hour	Balsam Mountain Road	Two-way, paved
Lakeview Drive	6	20 min.	Bryson City, NC	Two-way, dead end
Parson Branch	8	1 hour	Cades Cove	One-way, unpaved
Rich Mountain Road	7	1 hour	Cades Cove	One-way, unpaved
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail	5	1 hour	Cherokee Orchard Road	One-way, paved
Heintooga-Roundbottom Road - This is a driving trail that descends from the high altitudes of the Balsams down into the coves of Roundbottom and Cherokee. Heintooga-Roundbottom Road is accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Cherokee entrance of the Park. Continue all the way up to the mountaintop and make a left turn at the Balsam Mountain Campground sign and continue until the paved road dead ends just beyond the campground. This is a one-way road so once you start there is no turning back. The first fourteen miles are bumpy, winding, and sometimes steep. When you come out of the woods, it looks like the road dead ends into the water. Actually, you drive right through the water on a concrete ford. Park here, take your shoes off, and enjoy the cool mountain water! From this point it's a two way gravel road back to Cherokee. When you dead end into Big Cove Road take a left turn to go to Cherokee!