My
preferences for places to enjoy the outdoors rarely change. I love the Smokies
and Cumberland mountains for hiking, running, and exploring off trail, and cherish
the many parks around Knoxville for shorter trips on the bike and on foot. And
I’ve run the West Hills and Tenmile Greenways near home a couple of times a
week for decades. But sometimes my tastes do change, and courses that were once
solid favorites can fall completely off the radar. One of those lost and
“almost forgotten” routes is the section of the Foothills Parkway east of US
321 near Walland.
Welcome to the Foothills Parkway.
I’d
lived in Knoxville for six years before I headed out there for a run, and
wouldn’t return for another three years to try it on the bike. But something
clicked and the Parkway (including the western section from US321 to US 129 past
Look Rock) became one of my favorite places to ride and hike for an intense three-year
stretch. After that I’ve made a few trips, but the Parkway has changed so much
that I hardly recognize my old friend.
The gate at the US 321 access to the Parkway.
Current
Knoxvillians may not believe it, but when I first moved to the area in 1993 neither
trail running nor mountain biking were popular activities. I was used to having
a million acres of national forest roads and trails out my back door, but there
were few places nearby Knoxville with the distance, surface, and scenery for
good mountain biking. There wasn’t much help from guidebooks in the 1990s
either, though I would eventually help fill that gap with my own backroad
bicycling guide for the Smokies and Blue Ridge areas Guide.
What
information existed then was on the East Tennessee Mountain Bike section of Tom
Dunigan’s Tennessee Landforms website. (TN Landforms)
The SMHC trip to the snowy Parkway.
1-3-99,
“Trail” Run
East
Tennessee Mountain Bike was a bare bones site, but it had all the info needed
to plan a ride serious or otherwise. I’d read through the site, but never tried
the Foothills Parkway section until January 3, 1999 after I drove Jean to the
airport for a conference and I was looking for somewhere to run close by in the
Smokies. At that time, we referred to the section to the west of US 321
(formally sections 8G and 8H) as the “Look Rock” section, and the uncompleted
section (formally sections 8E and 8F) to the east as the “Closed” or “Gated”
section. The NPS allowed hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders on the closed
section, but kept it closed to motor vehicles except on special occasions, such
as fall leaf viewing.
Jean and a rare Tennessee snowman.
I
knew little about the Parkway then and was surprised to find the road was
paved, but rough in places. The first three miles were a serious climb before
the grade lessened. I went about seven miles roundtrip in 66 minutes, turning
around at a survey marker after completing the first big climb. There were
great views south toward the Little River and across to the Smokies foothills.
I couldn’t help but notice the rocky roadcuts with strong iron staining among
the shales and sandstones. The weather was clear and calm and around 20-25F. I
saw one other pair of hikers, first timers as well. The Look Rock section was
also closed that day.
On the Look Rock section of the Parkway.
10-5-02,
Bike Ride
Despite
having such an enjoyable inaugural run, I did not return to the Parkway until
late 2002. At that time, I was writing my biking guide and was looking to
achieve a balance of locations and conditions for rides. I planned to include
the Look Rock section in the book and then briefly describe the closed section
as an alternative or addition to the Look Rock Section. I’d already ridden the
west section (a 35-mile round trip twice over the top of Look Rock) when I
headed to the closed section on October 5, 2002.
The
Look Rock section was in good shape, and I usually used my road bike there. The
closed section was rougher, and I suspect I used my mountain bike, but didn’t
record which bike I was on for any of my rides on the Parkway. For the ride I
made a detailed road log, noting all the features that a curious rider might
encounter, and took the picture that would be used in my book to illustrate the
ride.
From
the dirt parking area at the gate across the Parkway it was a quarter mile to
the end of the bridge over US 321, The first climb is a doozy, about 760’ in
the next 2.5 miles. A pair of pullouts with views over Tuckaleechee Cove
provide excuses for pulling over to rest. This was what it was all about; a remote
mountain road with an easy surface, lots of views, and no cars(!), things don’t
get much better. Once on the crest of the foothills the riding is gentler on
what the quad sheet calls Bates Mountain. There was one large pullout used to
store materials for the road builders, and another pair of overlooks.
The
shallow overlook at 4.8 miles marks the start of the descent to the Carr Creek
Bridge. This is a good spot for those looking for an easy day to turn around.
In the next mile and a half, the road drops 520 hard earned feet. Beyond the Carr
Creek Bridge the road climbs steadily, twists past a pair of overlooks, and
gains another 1,000 feet. At about 9.3 miles, near Caylor Gap, there is a spacious
overlook. In 2002, (and again in 2004) two huge bridges beyond led to the end
of the road at a berm at 9.8 miles marking the end of the 1980s era road
building. According to Dunnigan, “There is 1.8 miles of technical single track
in the middle with steep pitches and one rocky push” to connect to the
completed road on the Wears Cove side. I never explored the 1.8-mile single
track connector nor the completed roadway (4.1 miles long according to
Dunnigan) on the Wears Cove side.
The
substantial vertical on this ride was ideal for bike climbing training. My
friend Mark was especially eager to polish his climbing skills on this route
and made it a regular ride.
I came less frequently but often enough to get lazy in my record keeping making at least three trips with only a note that I’d ridden the Parkway and my mileage. But on 7-7-2004 I did another ride making a GPS track and taking waypoints. At the far end of the first bridge was a memorial to Roger Bonneteau, “A construction of the highest order,” who was killed working on the bridge on 8-10-2000.
1-19-03,
Hiking Trip
In
addition to biking on the Parkway we found it a good location for hiking on
snow days, especially when we were looking for hikes close to home. Jean’s
first trip was on 1-19-03 and featured three inches of new snow. We hiked about
nine miles, probably out and back to the start of the downhill to Carr Creek. We
almost always saw other people on the Parkway. This time we saw three other
groups. I took some black and white prints, hoping to be able to use those for my
biking guide. The snow was thick enough that we could see ski tracks heading up
the unplowed Look Rock section of the Parkway. In those conditions we’d find US
321 well maintained even when it was impossible to get around in the main part
of the park.
Jean and I on the Parkway.
We
would repeat the snow hike on 12-12-04. This time we found one of the access
points from private property leading to the “blue house that was visible from the
Parkway”. In January of 2006 Jean’s SMHC hike to Rich Mountain in Cades Cove
was snowed out, so we substituted another trip to the closed section. Our final
hike was 12-20-09, and featured a visit from a group of friendly llamas of
unknown origin.
Llamas on the Parkway!
The
Walland to Wears Cove sections (8E and 8F) were completed and opened in
November 2018. Like the adjacent sections (8G and 8H) from Walland to Chilhowee
Lake, the new Parkway is lightly used by sightseers, and the few cyclists
willing to battle the long climbs and to share the road with distracted drivers
and aggressive motor cyclists. Jean and I have only driven the new section
twice, once shortly after the opening and again supporting a recent hike. The
Parkway takes some extra time compared to the highway through Townsend, and is
more scenic, but requires some vigilance in dodging motorbikes.
Our
own interest in the Parkway has come full circle. The next stage in the development
of the Parkway is section 8D from Wears Valley to the Gatlinburg Spur. The
first step in the proposed project is a mountain bike trail system within the
Wears Valley portion of Foothills Parkway. A plan has been approved, but not
funded, that will develop 12 miles of trails plus build another mile of the
Parkway in the area just north of Metcalf Bottoms. No work has been done on the
project since it was approved in May 2022. We enlisted our friend Ed to join us
in exploring the property where the trails are planned. Though well
intentioned, the project was a response to demand for mountain biking trails on
the north side of the Smokies that has since been answered by commercial areas
developed at Vee Hollow (Vee
Hollow) in Townsend, Wildside (Wildside)
in Pigeon Forge, and at Ober Mountain in Gatlinburg, not to mention the extensive
system at the Urban Wilderness in South Knoxville.
More
alarmingly, the planning for completing the Parkway section of 8D is underway
with public scoping conducted in late fall of 2023 and early 2024. The NPS and Federal
Highway Administration originally completed baseline studies and preliminary
designs for Section 8D between the late 1980s and early 1990s to develop a
draft Environmental Impact Statement in 1994. They propose to use this outdated
information to complete 9 miles of Parkway, including a 1,200-foot tunnel. Though
there are various options for connecting the Parkway into the Gatlinburg Spur,
there are no alternatives to a full build of the Parkway, despite considerable
local enthusiasm for converting the Parkway Corridor to a system of hiker/biker
trails that would be easily accessible to the local community.
Most
tellingly, there is no mention of cost estimates for the project. The completion
of the missing link between Walland and Wears Valley was a financial
boondoggle, with individual bridges costing over $12 million and costs through 2013
of nearly $100 million. A biking/hiking trail would easily cost less than a
tenth of that and would fit more appropriately with the park’s mission.
Here
is a summary of Foothills Parkway history prior to the closure of the Missing
Link in 2018.
Partial Foothills Parkway Timeline.
Here’s
an overview of the FHP and details for the proposal for section 8D.
Foothills Parkway Project Overview.
