Tail of the dragon
 

I'm heading down to NC to kick off the new car season and celebrate getting my SS over the winter. I'm planning to hit the Tail of the Dragon, Hellbender 28, and Cherohala Skyway in April, probably going to be there Wednesday the 14th - Friday the 16th if anyone lives in the area and wants to cruise. I'm not the best photographer but I'll have my camera and stuff with me as well.

Plan was to get some morning and night runs in to hopefully miss traffic but I'm open to suggestions. Shoot me a PM if anyone's interested in meeting up.

GO home Yankee

I jest: BE CAREFUL! and have fun!

Love driving the Cherohala .... if you are driving down you can also swing by this area on your way south.... https://www.backofthedragon.com/ Brand new pavement

still heading south you can also hit 421 "The snake" https://www.thesnake421.com/snake-421-ride-information/

from there down the parkway Little Switzerland loop also has brand new pavement .... my goodness there are so many great roads around here, there and everywhere... LOL

BTW i highly recommend night runs on the dragon!

Lol I'm hoping in two or three years NC will be home! Thanks!


Awesome I'll definitely have to check those out too. We don't have many great roads up here in PA. The best well maintained and twisty road I've found is 2.5 hours away from me, not easy to hit routinely. All of the other ones have a bunch of gravel, pot holes, or aren't very fun to drive.

LOL i've been around the State college area before... lots of rolling hills and frost heaved pavement :-)
Shoot me a PM and let me know if you get around the 421 Snake area and i can meet you for a run and then down to Little Switzerland for some fun and a great place for a lunch stop. https://diamondback226.com/

Frank

Have fun! My latest run was in a GT Premium with the top down.

I would suggest morning runs, as you had said, and try to stay away from the weekends. I do enjoy the Dragon but I think it is a bit overrated. The road itself is fun but it can often be ruined by people who barely have the ability to drive in a straight line; I don't trust many of the corners (aka people coming into the mustard) to really get into the throttle.

Where in PA are you? I'm in Johnstown. I've done the Smokey Mtns 3 times. Great times!

Saving this for when I go!

well then go ahead and add this one in also... includes the little Switzerland loop.

https://diamondback226.com/

That's three really nice driving areas with great pavement everywhere and not many LEOs before you even get down to the dragon. As others have said there are more than a few people on the dragon who have no business even operating a piece of machinery on public roads but nonetheless will be happy to ruin your day/ trip by crashing into you.. even if you are paying attention and doing the right thing you can't control everything... but i digress. The other routes i listed usually have minimal traffic on the week days and not that much more on the weekends.

My best advice when driving these areas is to keep an out out for deer... they are plentiful and dangerously unpredictable. early morning and dusk are the absolute worst times. Also watch for decreasing radius corners...there are many.... if you don't know the roads or can't see around the turn... slow down! Decreasing radius corners can and will catch you out if you get too carried away. I can tell you from experience winding up in the oncoming lane with a dump truck heading straight for you is not a party you want an invitation to.

Final pieces of advice are tires and brake fluid..... If you think you can get one more trip out of the tires you currently have then go ahead and replace them before the trip because they won't last... i promise you will be half into your trip and cords will be showing... BTDT and it really sucks to be trying to find tires and get them mounted while on vacation in small mountain towns with limited selections available.
Brake fluid should be changed every 2 years at the most but i find changing it yearly is what is required for performance driving in the mountains. One downhill run is enough to boil up the even 2 year old stock brake fluid so if you haven't already serviced the brake system, get that done for sure.
And finally oh yeah....

Have fun!

Have it in my backyard; been in NC for almost 20 years. Have still to make it out to dragon country.

Not too far, I'm in Pittsburgh. I was thinking about heading out that way to drive Rt 30 sometime, I heard that's a decent drive.

My favorite road out here is Rt 19 in West Virginia. Pretty far but it's a well maintained and very twisty road.

You really need to drive the Cherohala at least once in your life.... its the closest thing to riding in a video game. Just amazing scenery, smooth pavement with awesome sweeping corners unlike the tight switch backs of the dragon it's easy to get a nice flow going. Way more fun. Been down there many weeks where i didnt go anywhere near the dragon and had all the fun i wanted.

We're attending a Camaro event in May that'll do all those roads. We've done them countless times by motorcycle but this'll be the first time in the Camaro. Looking forward to it!

Did Tail and Back of Dragon last fall with our local Camaro club. Had about 8 members in 4 cars go. Had great time.

Although I will agree about some of the drivers. I was not exactly poking and nearly had a motorcycle eat the rear window of my car because he was accelerating so hard out of a switchback.

Going again in June with looks like 15+ members and maybe 8-10 cars this time.