Take to the Skyway

The road has been compared to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it’s less traveled than the Parkway and the views show no signs of civilization. Winding through mountainous forest to almost 5,400 feet in elevation and descending to less than 900 feet at the Tellico River, the Cherohala Skyway is a two-hour drive from Robbinsville, N.C., to Tellico Plains, Tenn., with panoramic lookout vistas. You can ride a bike or plan a whole day of hiking. However you do it, you’ll find a beautiful but empty road with even emptier trails. 

 The idea of the Skyway started out almost as a joke at a Tellico Plains Kiwanis Club meeting in 1958. At the time, the roads connecting Tellico Plains with the North Carolina mountains could only be traveled by wagons, so a wagon train was formed to raise awareness for a road to be built. This demonstration continued for years and finally got the attention of government officials. The Skyway was completed in 1996 at a cost of $100 million. It was a lengthy project, stalled by environmental concerns since the road cut through the Cherokee and Nantahala National Forests, which gave it its name “Chero...hala.” The Cherohala Skyway itself is a state road — NC 143 and TN 165.

The Skyway may be known as motorcycle heaven, but it’s not used much by anyone. When it opened, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that 5 million cars a year would use the new road, which works out to 10 cars per minute year-round. The actual figure today is more like 10 cars and 50 motorcycles a day.

The Skyway is designated as a National Scenic Byway by the Federal Highway Administration because of its panoramic vistas and regional significance. Spring arrives late on the Skyway and fall comes early. It’s an exposed road which should be avoided in fog and ice. The Skyway is easy to reach. It just takes a long time from most population centers. There are no gas stations or restaurants on the Skyway, only picnic tables and restrooms at several stops. 

Hikes

Hikes along the Cherohala Skyway are short and gentle. You can get a trail map at the Visitor Center in Robbinsville, or the Cherohala Skyway Visitor Center in Tellico Plains. The driving mileages for these attractions are given from the North Carolina entrance at Santeetlah Gap. The distances and ascents are round-trip.

Wright Creek Nature Trail — 5.7 miles on the right

The hike: half-mile, 200 ft. ascent

Walk deep in a forest of hemlock, maple and American beech. You’ll cross an overgrown roadbed used to bring loggers here. Go straight following signs to the Nature Trail. The woods feel untouched, but the area was logged as late as the 1970s.

Spirit Ridge — 8.7 miles on the left

The hike: 0.7 mile, almost flat

The paved path through a hard cove forest is accessible to strollers and wheelchairs. At the lookout, you’re looking northeast in the forest. In the distance on your right, you can see the Skyway. You can certainly hear vehicles on it.

Huckleberry Knob — 9.6 miles on the right

The hike: 2.5 miles, 310 ft. ascent

Start at an old gated forest road lined with white snakeroot, jewelweed and asters and walk under beech and maple trees. The trail opens up into a meadow of grasses and thistles with huge blueberry and blackberries bushes. Bees and butterflies flit about through the wildflowers. Your destination is the bald to your left. Almost at the top, a cross commemorates two lumberjacks who died here in 1899. Andy Sherman and Paul O’Neil, who worked at the Tellico Logging Camp, were walking from Tellico Plains to Robbinsville, the way you’re driving now, trying to get home for Christmas, but they never made it. The next autumn, a hunter found their bodies, surrounded by whiskey bottles. Reach the top of Huckleberry Knob at 5,550 ft., with outstanding views into the Nantahala Mountains. The trail ends a little further at an old campfire site. 

Hooper Bald Trail — 10.8 miles on the left

The hike: one mile, 150 ft. ascent

This parking area is the start of a network of trails in the Snowbird Mountains. Hooper Bald can be seen to the left of the information board. The trail, lined with gravel, starts beyond the picnic table to the right. Continue straight after crossing a forest road. The trail ends in a grassy meadow filled with blueberry bushes sagging under the weight of it’s fruit in late summer. The trail continues right to a small rock outcropping with a view.

Just below Hooper Bald was a hunting lodge where the first wild boars were imported from Europe in 1912. George Gordon Moore attempted to create a game preserve in the European style and brought in buffalo, elk, mule deer, Russian brown bear and boars. Only the boars survive, having long ago escaped from the preserve, and they are still wreaking environmental havoc. Mature boars, weighing more than 400 pounds, spread north into the Smokies. They dig up the soil searching for roots and leave the ground looking like it’s been roto-tilled. However, you’re more likely to see a bear in the woods than a boar. There are no remains of the lodge.    

According to the Monterey County Historical Society, George Gordon Moore was not content to introduce boars into Western North Carolina. In the 1920s, he bought a ranch in the Carmel Valley and had boars shipped from Hooper Bald to California, where the boars are causing the same environmental problems. 

Santeetlah — 11.4 on right. At 5,377 ft. elev., this is the highest point on the Skyway. 

Mud Gap Trailhead — 14.9 miles on the left

Hike: 3.0 miles, 500 ft. ascent

The Mud Gap Trail to Whigg Meadow, part of the Benton MacKaye Trail, is blazed with white diamonds. The Benton MacKaye Trail, a 300-mile footpath, starts at Springer Mountain, Ga., (also the start of the Appalachian Trail) and travels to Davenport Gap at the northeast edge of the Smokies, where the A.T. leaves the park. 

As you start the hike on an old road, Benton MacKaye Trail comes in from the right paralleling the Skyway. The trail, lined with jewelweed, white snakeroot and filmy angelica, ends at a large gravel parking area. On the right is Whigg Meadow with awesome views. You can spend a lot of time exploring the several side trails emanating from the open bald with a row of bird boxes. No wonder this field attracts serious birders. 

Beech Gap — 18.6 miles

Here the Skyway crosses the state line and descends through the Cherokee National Forest on TN 165 west for more than 24 miles. The road here is rougher and there are fewer amenities. It ends about 0.1 mile beyond the Cherohala Skyway Visitor Center in Tellico Plains on TN 68.