The Dragon, Tapoco, & Fontana

I had posted about our lunch trip to Tapoco Lodge last month during our Tennessee Travelers rally and last week we were discussing it with our friend, Joe.  After he went home, Bev and I decided we should invite him and wife, Carol, to make a trip up to the lodge for lunch as they had not been there.  As it turned out, Carol had never been up that way at all so she had not seen the Alcoa lakes and dams or ridden on the famous “Dragon” and neither of them had seen Fontana Dam - shot from web while spilling water.

Route US-129 is 582 miles long and runs from north Chiefland, FL to Knoxville, TN passing thru the Smokey Mountains in TN & NC with one part of it having been virtually taken over by motorcycles and sports cars.  This 11 mile stretch is called the “Tail of the Dragon” or just “The Dragon,” contains 318 curves (some are switchbacks) and is continually up or down hill.  It runs from the upper end of Chilhowee Lake in TN to Deals Gap in NC where NC-28 goes left to Fontana Dam and Bryson, City, NC and US-129 continues to Tapoco Lodge and Robbinsville, NC.  Shots from the web.

Even though it was a Tuesday, there were plenty of sports cars and motorcycles on the Dragon with most being reasonably driven Harley’s but several were wildly driven "crotch rockets” just looking to be killed or injured as many are each year.

It was raining during our previous trip but plenty sunny and in the low 90’s for this day so really a little too hot and we left the pups at home – they were not happy.  The Dragon begins less than 30 minutes from home and 3 miles in we made our usual stop at the Calderwood Dam overlook which is one of my favorite sites in the Smokies.

We drove the remainder of the Dragon, past Cheoah Dam (where the dam scene from The Fugitive was shot), got to Tapoco Lodge about 1:15 and took a table overlooking the cascading waters of the Cheoah River and under a large umbrella.

We began with some libations and this is a shot of Bev’s 11 Mile Margarita.

We had an order of their very good onion rings for the table.

And for our meals, Joe and Carol each had the trout nuggets appetizer (chunks of cornmeal crusted Carolina Mountain Trout) and a side salad, 

I had the Greek Salad, and Bev ordered a large Slick Rock Pizza, ate one piece, and took the rest home for us to eat on for a couple of days.  Described as "Red sauce base topped with mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, bacon, sausage, black olives, vine-ripened tomatoes, green peppers, onions & mushrooms" it is a very tasty pizza.

Everyone said there food was excellent and I really enjoyed my salad.

After lunch, we made the 15 mile drive up to Fontana Dam which was built during the war to furnish power for several industries supporting the war effort.  It is the first of five dams on the Little Tennessee River with our Tellico Dam and Lake being the last one - three built by Alcoa and two built by TVA.  We started with a look at the bottom of the dam.

Then we drove up to the top of the dam with a stop first at Fontana Village which is a nice resort with lodge, cabins, tennis courts, pools, mini golf and other activities.  It was built to house workers who were building the dam and is now an incorporated town with 33 fulltime residents.

Fontana Dam took just three years to build, and at 2365’ long and 480’ tall, is the highest in the eastern US and was 4^th highest in the world when built.  It has a nice visitors center which details it’s construction and other history.

Fontana Lake has a foot print of 11,700 acres, 240 miles of shoreline, and a maximum depth of 440’ - here are some folks enjoying their ride.

After the dam visit, we stopped at Deals Gap for ice cream (for the others) and some shots of the dragon sculpture and it is pretty accurate with the dragons tail claiming many motorcycles.

From there it was back home following an enjoyable six hour round trip.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/16/19 event date