A Year-Round Guide to Franklin and Nantahala

Editor’s Note: All locations below are open and unaffected by Hurricane Helene. If you plan to travel, please check this link for up-to-date road closure information: https://drivenc.gov. Who hasn’t dreamed

Rosemary and Goat Cheese Strata

Editor’s Note: All locations below are open and unaffected by Hurricane Helene. If you plan to travel, please check this link for up-to-date road closure information: https://drivenc.gov. Who hasn’t dreamed

Where to Find Fall Recreation on the Cherohala Skyway and Beyond

Editor’s Note: All locations below are open and unaffected by Hurricane Helene. If you plan to travel, please check this link for up-to-date road closure information: drivenc.gov.


Who hasn’t dreamed of auto aviation? You’re driving down the highway, all four wheels rolling on the pavement, when, suddenly, you seem to take flight. Soaring through the clouds and past mountains, you check your rearview mirror only to glimpse the treetops. This is the Cherohala Skyway experience.

Designated a National Scenic Byway, Cherohala’s name comes from a mashup of two national forests: the Cherokee and the Nantahala. Traversing both, the Cherohala Skyway is a 43-mile, two-lane skyway that connects Graham County, North Carolina, with Monroe County, Tennessee.

The Cherohala Skyway was North Carolina’s most expensive scenic highway when it was completed in 1996, but the views it offers are priceless. photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

Keith Hill grew up in Graham County, moved away after high school, and moved back with his wife as soon as he retired. An avid outdoorsman, Hill believes there’s no better place to be. He and his wife take every opportunity to hike, kayak, fish, run marathons — “you name it,” he says. “But when we drive down the Cherohala Skyway, we take our time and take in the scenery.”

With sky-high elevations and birds-eye views of Tennessee’s Tellico River and North Carolina’s Santeetlah Lake, the Cherohala offers more than a driving experience. From dawn ’til dusk — and even into the wee hours of the star-lit night — the skyway and its surrounding area beg to be explored on and off the road. Read on for some of our favorite reasons to hit the skyway, plus where to detour along the way.



 

Pack a picnic to enjoy lunch at this picturesque summit. photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

Pair a Hike With a Picnic

As you continue down the Cherohala, look to the right for Huckleberry Knob trailhead parking, located just before you get to the Tennessee border (around mile marker 8). The trail, formed from an old road, is an easy mile-or-so walk to Huckleberry Knob.

Here on the expansive grassy bald, you’re rewarded with sweeping mountain views in every direction.

“This is a great place for a picnic,” Hill says, who likes to visit in July when the flame azaleas bloom. “They can get huge, like seven- or eight-feet tall. A lot of tourists come just for that alone. And a little later, we like to come when the huckleberries ripen.”

Between the year-round views, the wildflowers in spring, and the azaleas in July, there’s always a reason to linger on Huckleberry Knob. After your picnic, walk toward the back of the knob and check out the cross that marks the graves of Andy Sherman and Paul O’Neil, two men who got lost on the trail in 1899. Nine months after they died, their bodies were found next to a few jugs of whiskey.

 

Reel in a Trout

It’s debatable where the credit goes for Big Snowbird Creek’s off-the-hook trout fishing: Mother Nature, or Graham County’s Wildlife Resources Commission. About a decade ago, the county designated a 2.9-mile stretch of this wide Lake Santeetlah tributary for delayed-harvest fishing. Today that section, renowned among fly-fishers for its plethora of rainbow and brown trout, starts at a foot bridge at the end of Big Snowbird Creek Road (just above the “Junction”) and runs down to the Chestnut Flat concrete bridge.

The fishing is easily accessible. “A well-maintained gravel road runs along the whole stream through there,” Hill says. “You can park, step out of your vehicle, and step into the water within seconds.”

Catch-and-release season runs from October 1 through the first Saturday in June. From July through September, the creek is open to bait fishers, who are welcome to keep their limit.

 

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest holds more than 100 species of trees, including untouched stands of sycamore, oak, and yellow-poplar. photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

Visit an Old-Growth Forest

Stop and take a moment to listen to trickling water throughout your hike. photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

“I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree,” Joyce Kilmer wrote, namesake for the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.

Even in the tree category, the old-growth hardwoods in Robbinsville’s 3,800-acre forest are superlative-worthy. Some are more than 400-years old, more than 100-feet tall, and more than 20 feet in circumference. Until you visit, it’s hard to fathom the tranquility that awaits in the forest’s fresh air.

Every time Hill and his wife host visitors, they come to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest to hike the loop trail. “The air is cooler here; it’s cleaner,” he says. “You can smell the seasons as they change.”

 

Enjoy the serenity of Lake Calderwood by kayak.  photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

Float Into the Wilderness

From his home on Lake Santeetlah, Hill has easy access to the unspoiled lake’s 76 miles of shoreline. But when he wants to get away from it all — truly get away from it all — he heads to Lake Calderwood. “There’s very little boat traffic on Santeetlah, and it’s always a favorite,” Hill says. “But if you want to go somewhere that feels like it’s totally in the wilderness, my pick is Lake Calderwood.”

You can reach Lake Calderwood’s only boat ramp on the eastern end. “Other than that, there’s no access. No homes, no roads,” Hill describes. Surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest, the Smoky Mountain National Park, and the Nantahala National Forest, kayakers regularly spot bald eagles and other wildlife.

“If you were to fly over it in a plane, you’d think it was just a big, wide river. Once you get about halfway down it on the northern side, there are hundreds of black bears in the Smoky Mountain National Park,” he says. He and his wife once saw a deer swimming across the lake. “You wouldn’t think they can move as fast as they can with their skinny little legs, but they can flat-out move.”

 

Go on a nighttime adventure to make the most of celestial sights that come with minimal light pollution. photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

Journey Into the Cosmos

Head out during the evening to find brilliantly luminous stargazing opportunities in this remote corner of Appalachia.

Detour off the skyway, about five miles past the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest parking lot, and you’ll reach the end of Maple Springs Road and the start of a boardwalk. (Fun fact for history buffs: This was the original Cherohala Skyway, built in the 1960s and later rerouted.) The boardwalk is your path to a western North Carolina stargazing experience that will shine bright in your memory long after you return home from your trip.

Surrounded by the Nantahala National Forest, each overlook around Lake Santeetlah offers a sweeping view. photograph by David Hunter Turner, Little River Creative

On the mountainside deck overlooking Slickrock Creek Basin, clear nights reveal every constellation you remember from childhood. “You can see Lake Santeetlah to the east, and to the west, you’re looking at Knoxville and Maryville, Tennessee,” Hill says. “From here, you’re just about as close to the stars as you can get.”

When it’s time to rest your head and dream about tomorrow’s adventures, Graham County’s communities are a great destination for travelers who want to spend the night in North Carolina. Options include cabin rentals, the picturesque Snowbird Mountain Lodge, Fontana Village overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the historic Tapoco Lodge on the Cheoah River. Ready to get started? Click here to learn more about all to see and do off the Cherohala Skyway and start planning your western North Carolina road trip.

This story was published on Oct 14, 2024

Robin Sutton Anders

Robin Sutton Anders is a writer based in Greensboro.