(Sam's) at 3.800 feet. It's a nice lone¬
some drive.
Extra Nice
Two other trips we offer — one
restful, the other exciting. For the first,
come out of Hot Springs across the
bridge, and turn sharp left off U.S.
70-25 down a little hill onto the Paint
Rock road, unpaved. Here, for sev¬
eral miles, road and river race side by
side, the French Broad alternately
smooth, then brawling as it tumbles
on between rocky cliffs toward the
State line gorge.
We have made this shady water-
level drive many times, and it is a
refreshing change in the pace of moun¬
taineering. On your right, the moun¬
tains rise, hemming the car close to
the water; so close that you can flip
a cigarette out of the window into the
river at your wheel's edge.
The route takes you to Paint Rock,
a 100-foot out-crop of stratified rock
stained by mineral-laden seepage, and
here is the state line. Turn right, and
continue the drive up Paint Rock
Creek which here enters the river, into
Tennessee, and on to join paved 208
for a circle trip. There is a picnic and
recreation area on this road beyond
Paint Rock, with a swimming pool
which looks mighty refreshing (and
mighty cold. too).
Along the Precipice
If you do not like driving along the
edge of a precipice, you will not like
the first few miles of N.C. 209 which
leads south about 37 miles from Hot
Springs to Lake Junaluska. However,
some like this scenery, and it is un¬
usual — on the right the Balds, on
your left the gorge with Spring Creek
roaring 700 feet below in its depths;
and beyond the gorge the long ridges
of the Spring Creek Mountains. Much
of this road is paved; work was pro¬
gressing on the Hot Springs end this
spring.
Spring Creek gorge is the southern
counterpart of Big Laurel gorge on the
( Continued on page 44)
THE PICTURE
The picture above is a reproduction
of a photograph of a large relief map
in the North Carolina Museum. It was
made under the direction of J. A.
Holmes, once state geologist. THE
STATE can furnish 20 x 30 enlarge¬
ments of this photograph at cost.
THE
The Smokies, like our other ranges,
has a distinctive personality: and it
may be called bold, decisive and aloof.
Where the Big Pigeon River, after
collecting the tribute of a hundred
streamlets, bursts through the Unakas,
the western Appalachian range gains
in mass and height and ruggedness.
For 54 miles, the Smokies bear
steadfastly toward the southwest, at
no place less than 5.000 feet high, a
remarkably uncompromising wall, and
the largest land mass in the east, fully
500,000 acres of mountains, most of
it in the Great Smokies National Park.
In all that length it suffers no stream
and only one highway to cross its back¬
bone — the road across Newfound
Gap. 5.04S feet, from Cherokee to
Gatlinburg (U.S. 441 -N.C. 107). Be¬
fore this was constructed. Colonel
Thomas (white chief of the Chcro-
kecs) had built a wagon road through
Indian Gap (5.317 feet), but it was
described as “miserable" and soon fell
into disuse.
Although the Smokies arc cele¬
brated because they have 16 peaks
24
THE STATE. May 30. 1953
