We did this drive a year ago in our Tesla Model Y on Full Self Drive. Bought a great tee shirt. Saw so many expensive cars zooming down the road in caravans. Had a great family reunion at Fontana resort. On a cruise ship a few months later, had my Dragon’s Tail shirt on and ran into a group of driving enthusiasts who had just done the road as well. By the way Tesla FSD was slow on the curves. Had to pull over to let others pass us. Yeah Tesla!
My daughter and I were hit by a large black bear that ran across the Dragon into the path of our Mini Cooper back in 2009 so the warning of wildlife at 4:53 is a very accurate one.
Co-worker crashed his Electra glide on this road 10 years ago. Was 7 or more hours before anyone found him down the embankment and a few more hours before they brought him up to the road. He was a very long time recovering from the crash.
@@504RoadTrips he was at the tail end of a group of 8 riders. He had fallen behind enough to be out of sight of the rest. By the time the group had realized they were missing one guy they were miles ahead. There weren't any marks on the road where he went over which made locating him very difficult.
I was lucky enough to drive the Tail after a couple days of rain. Weather forecast was for another rainy day but the rain never showed and I had the drive essentially to myself in my '81 Vette. Only saw a few cars driving the opposite direction the entire route. One of a few great stops I made on a great cross country road trip.
Kangamangus Highway is great! Im from PA. Tail of the dragon is amazing but what makes the drive completely awesome is the Blue Ridge Parkway. I get on it in Front Royal (Skyline) and drive it the entire way down to Cherokee North Carolina. There is no better ride than that. I do it once a year.
I live in Colebrook NH and the Kancamagus during the fall is beautiful but extremely busy. We are heading out in June of 2023 for the whole month and we are riding down to the tail. Riding a Harley Tri Glide
Good example of an uneducated and/or selfish rider ahead of the camera vehicle for most of the way. You will get caught up on the Tail of the Dragon, please be courteous and let faster traffic through using one of the very many pull offs. You are also likely to catch up to slower traffic on there, please do not tailgate to entice people to drive above their skill or vehicle capability and risk an accident but do wave, honk, beep or signal when slower traffic lets you by. Very nice video.
I think she was very unsure of herself, maybe not familiar with the bike or used to a smaller one. We saw a few panic moves and drags of the back tire. I really wish we had turned around and made a couple more runs. Not that our Civic could have gone much faster. Thanks for watching!
I am proud to say my wife and I conquered the dragon in our Toyota sienna doing about 35 to 45 miles an hour, However we were defeated by two sports bikes a BMW M3 and a Porsche spider that passed us like we were sitting still
Can't wait, scheduled to vacation there in May if Covid crisis is better, if not will just drive it and come on home! Looks like a blast, although my sister got an upset stomach just watching the video so it may not be for everyone. One of my favorite road trips was over the Continental Divide. I was lucky enough to live in Colorado when I had a 2001 Audi TT Roadster Quattro. It was an absolute blast. Rather than worrying about tress on the sides of the road you had to worry about whether the guard rails would hold as the drop could be a couple thousand feet.
Hi fellow bikers...I'm from France, I would give a lot to comes over to ride this fantastic route, but now in my mid seventies, and still riding (an XJR1300) I doubt I'll make it now . We do have some fabulous roads over here, with not so much traffic, one is the "Route Napoleon" if you type in "Route Napoleon Motorcycles" you'll see what I mean, maybe not as exciting as the tail, but some great scenery. Take care all you bikers out there, no matter where you are or what you ride...
On the upside if you do manage to come here there are websites where you can rent a motorcycle, and as long as you have a valad motorcycle license/ endorsement you're good to go.
@@GrumpyIan Hi Grumpy....some years back I did think about it, but when you retire things get a little tight especially now in the financial climate we have in today's world ...still, if I ever come into an inheritance from some relative I've not heard about, or win the lottery, than sadly it'll not happen. Only good biking news for me is I live in a particularly beautiful part of France, with traffic free roads, stunning scenery, and plenty of cafes and restaurants in the villages I ride through, so it's not all bad news, Through the modern technology and media I can put the Dragon on the TV and almost be there, not the same, but....... take care, ride safe.
Fantastic camera work, and the 2x was a great idea. The Dragon is so technical it'll wear out all but the most hard core enthusiasts. Agree that NC28 is the better road although the speed limit there has been reduced from 55 to 35. Both roads will decimate your tires. But what fun!
I know somebody that didn't know the area but somehow got on this road in a tractor trailer lol. I forget how etc because it's been 15 or 20 yrs ago.. but I remember a delivery had then somewhere and the next pickup was around Vonore. Said back in actually carrying a road atlas days and figured it'd be a little smaller road etc but it saved a couple hours or so if they'd went around like to Dalton and up. Anyway.. I do vividly recall the pucker factor described to me that included a lot of prayers lol. Said they was never more happy in life than when finished and got on a bigger road. Anyway I've never been but that's my driving experience story as told.😂
Thanks for this video. From what I saw The Tail of the Dragon might be over rated. We live in SE Ohio where we have the "Triple Nickel" (Rt.555) Rt. 78 and one of my favorites Rt. 374 through the Hocking Hills region. We have traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive numerous times and love them, but I always stayed away from the Tail because of how others drive. I value our lives quite a bit. Once again, Thank you for this video. Ride safely and enjoy every journey.
I've lived in both areas you mention. ToD is very fun but if your apprehensive go on a tues or thurs around noon. Hardly anyone on it at those times. Also make sure to ride the cherohala.com/
M B I wish so much that we could have taken my Saab 9-3 Viggen convertible. It has Z-rated tires and ~250 horses. But, like all Saabs like to be, or wait to go, she’s beside the house, and needs to get some minor electrical work that nobody in New Orleans is willing to touch. We have one “maybe mechanic” who *might* fix it; Jason has the OBD-2 software to fix it, but the car is 9” off the ground on the jack stands, sooo; or, best of all, two dealers in Houston can do it, but… I have to transport it. Jason is still about salty about that little traffic jam at lunchtime in ATL, and while I want to go to ATL to shop (at IKEA!!) I bet y’all do have great and scenic roads there. [edit: Spelling]
There may be many roads like this in Europe, and with higher speed limits but it’s not embraced at all. God bless America for realising it’s there to be enjoyed, that it isn’t policed into extinction. Even having a website for a section of good road in the UK would be denounced by the fun police aka health and safety mob for encouraging speed or something. So nannied here now. So want to do a US road trip and include this section!
I've driven this one, and I've also driven NC28 from Bryson City to Franklin, and honestly I prefer that one. More variety in the turn radii, more elevation changes mid-turn, an all-around more diverse experience. The Dragon felt almost like a metronome, at least to me.
These are all just smooth forgiving low speed corners and it flows so well. People over hype this road for been more dangerous than it is mostly because most of them have never really seen or heard of many other roads. This is definitely more forgiving than most other roads , If people manage to crash here it's because they're doing something stupid like cutting lanes or they're a complete novice.
@@AM-wi6zo I don't think you've driven fast or anywhere close to a cars limit of grip in your life mate go out to a track so everyone can have a good laugh at you out there.
Weekends are especially good to avoid. I was in the lead of a group of '57 Porsche replicas and got nailed by the Tennessee State Police for doing 46 mph. That little indiscretion cost me a night in traffic school school and a 154.50 fine. The charges would have been greater if I had not agreed to do the school and I would have received a mark on my license. If I had gotten another ticket within five years I would have gotten the mark anyway. I behaved or was more careful afterwards so I didn't have another incident.
I'd like to see some try riding a yellow banana skateboard all the way.Many times myself and other road our boards down the The first 1 that crashed had to by a case beer.Didnt have all the traffic it has today.Man those were good times back then
The problem for me on roads like this is there will always be someone faster than me even if I'm maintaining the speed limit or a bit over. Some will hang back until it's safe to pass but a lot will ride your tail making the drive uncomfortable. Even if you pull over and let them pass there will be another driver in short order doing the same thing. Equally aggravating is a driver that's uncomfortable maintaining the speed limit and has no thought of pulling over. And in a lot of those cases their comfortable speed is a few miles an hour slower than the gearing on my vehicle so I have to keep touching the brakes or use an even lower/slower gear. I love touring and would love to drive TotD but I tend to stay away from tourist roads such as this.
I'm currently working on getting my endorsment so I can legally drive a motorcycle on the road. Hopefully by the end of this year or sometime next year my dad and I can road trip this... if gas gets to a reasonble price by then....
Me and my buddies going on a bike trip he's coming from Pittsburgh area I'm leaving the Camp Lejeune area in North Carolina we're meeting up somewhere around there in hitting this route up just checking it out on video before I go LOL
I’d been hearing about it for years, so when we found ourselves just an hour away from it, we had to go drive it. The problem is that it’s in a very out-of-the-way place, nowhere close to an Interstate, so it’s not convenient to most people unless they specifically want to go there.
I've seen videos of people in sports cars racing through there. I don't know how they manage to do that with the traffic. And even with the most ground-hugging suspensions, it still seems like you couldn't go very fast. I guess there are times when the traffic is light. It would be fun if it were a closed course and a more controlled environment, but we enjoyed the drive the way it was.
Honestly, I'd love to do it but if you can, road trip to the Ozarks... A route through their "dragon" jasper to Melbourne. It's far less traveled, and easily just as challenging and just as beautiful.
@@504RoadTrips just drove the portion AR9 from mountain view to Melbourne today and it is amazing. Plan on doing the rest as I can, the windiest part is going east from Jasper on 74, then south on 123. Zoom in on the map near Campbell gap. Then I would go east on 16 at sand gap, take 27 via 16 to Marshal, then 27 to Harriet which changes into 14 as you continue east. At Allison cross AR5, to continue on AR9 to Melbourne.
I was coming back to tennessee from bryson city nc in my little vw tiguan suv and accidentally found myself on this road and I looked over at my friend and said “dayum this road is curvy!” Lmao
7:57 - Damn, did someone just have an accident? This road is scarier than the notorious Nordschleife. That tip about having a stick shift is true. I use my transmission to brake quite frequently. It's a 6 speed VW GTI, perfect for the Dragon but I would still prefer the R so I can have AWD.
Hello to all my brothers and sister who rode on two wheels God bless everyone I will have the privilege of writing tail of the Dragon in late April with my wife I believe I have done my homework thoroughly to enjoy the ride starting from one end to the other and then back no more than third gear and allowing all the riders who are going faster than me to give Slow down on the shoulder so they can bypass I am not in a rush even though I am a experienced rider because I have my wife with me and we are enjoying the entire week after that I will explore The other motorcycle trails take care God bless everyone and ride safe Eric a.k.a. Hollywood owner of black Z x14
@@GoVols2015 Has to do with not getting busted as easily and they didn't patrol it near as much when it was 55 through there. Now that it's 35, the cops are all over that road. At 55 most people could barely maintain that if at all so they had very little incentive to patrol the road looking for the few who would be 10 over and worth ticketing. Now, they can go out there and bust people with high dollar speeding tickets, it's worth their time now.
@@MotoAtheist one easy simple trick. Ride down the Dragon (from NC) to the Overlook. Turn around and ride back up the Dragon. You will know if there are any cops, or if there are, where they are at. There’s only a few hang out spots they stop at anyway. Most of them won’t pull you over unless you are crossing the yellow or not holding the proper line.
From beginning to end of filming, it was 27 minutes. If there was no traffic, at a reasonable speed, it could probably be done in 18 minutes or less. In a properly equipped vehicle, closed course, it could be done a lot faster than that.
Neutral disengages the engine from the wheels, and reduces your control over the car. Very dangerous on a mountain road (and illegal), as your brakes will fail pretty quickly if you use them to control your speed going downhill for too long. We actually experienced brake fade on the Blue Ridge Parkway in a rental van that had too weak of a transmission to keep the speed down.
Thanks for posting and good tips, but I feel like I was just watching the back of a silver Hyundai Santa Fe most of time. I would have given it a 10 second lea d so I could watch the road and not his brake lights.
Sorry about that. I had someone riding my ass the whole time, so it wasn't easy to back off too far. We should have made a few trips, and picked the best video, but I was running out of daylight and battery.
I just did my first 100 miles this year during the summer and yesterday Nov 26th I just drove from the bronx to North Carolina for 15 hours and did 763 miles. Is there any good roads like the dragon in north Carolina?
I’m sure there are, up in the mountains. I doubt there’s anything as heavily traveled as this one. The highway north out of Cherokee, heading up to Gatlinburg is pretty interesting.
The Dragon has about 5x as many curves and is on steeper terrain. But Caesar’s Head looks interesting. We’ll have to try to go see that if we ever make it out that way.
Yes, that's about right. If it was possible to consistently do the 30 MPH speed limit the whole way, it would be a little over 20 minutes, but some of those curves can't be taken at 30 MPH in most cars, and there was a lot of traffic when we went, so that slowed things down.
One thing I could never understand is if you’re doing the speed limit, or 5-10 above, on a two lane like this, why should you have to slow down to pull off to let someone who is speeding excessively go by you?
I think that rule is more for the sightseers who want to go 20 MPH. The speed limit is pretty strict on here. But if someone is wanting to try to go breakneck speed and they’re riding your tail, it’s always a good idea to let them around, and get yourself out of harm’s way.
Let them do what they want,if they want to crash,let them go. Just get out of the way so they don’t involve you. You’re probably one of those drivers that stay in the left lane and tries to keep faster vehicles from passing right?
It’s called a “legal “ speed limit which means those wanting to exceed at an unsafe speed and putting other people’s lives and property in danger is ILLEGAL. Which means that they are the ones in the wrong,not me. If such a person were to cause a wreck with one of my family members, they just might not have to worry about going jail! Plain and simple! Would any of y’all move over and let a murderer run by you if you were able to prevent it? Same thing! It’s about taking ownership of who is in the wrong!
@@stevefranklin9920 are you the police? If not then you don’t take the law into your own hands. That gets people killed also. If that driver wants to go around you,let him go! If by refusing to get out of their way and he decides to use his vehicle to move you out of his way,and it causes you to lose control of your vehicle,and gets you injured or killed or one of your family members,when all you had to do was pull over and let him go around…your actions have consequences as well. Taking the law into your own hands is against the law.
@@SuperD1960 I’m not in no way taking the law into my own hands if someone comes up behind me speeding and I refuse to pull over so they can continue to break the law and endanger others! If I am abiding the speed limit, THEY ARE THE ONE IN THE WRONG!!! NOT ME!! They can slow down and obey the law like most every one else. I use to be a street racer and have ran 140 mph down a main road where I live. If someone had seen me coming that fast but still pulled out of a side road, it would’ve in no way been their fault! It would totally be mine. I have matured in mind and age enough now to see how wrong, and stupid I was putting others lives in jeopardy just because I wanted to drive fast. Emphasis on I. I am just trying to be a law abiding citizen. Question for you, if someone was coming in your yard with a gun headed towards a family member, what would you do? Do you not understand that a speeding vehicle is the same as a loaded gun?
It’s hard to tell what is multiple curves, and what are spiral curves. I think I just counted when the turns reversed directions or if there was an obvious straightaway between two curves.
In the 90’s my mother and I accidentally got on this nightmare of a road trying to take a shortcut. This road needs to be marked as one big giant hazard on every map in the known universe. I’ve never been so carsick..EVER. And I was the one driving.
There’s a lot of nice roads all over the place here in America, but people don’t usually think there are a ton of nice B roads as they call them in England.
Your comment about how slow you had to go, is the NUMBER ONE reason to avoid that area!! The posted speed limits that I saw on the video all said "30 MPH". WAY TO many go there thinking that is a minimum speed limit. And video after video tell you that if you are doing that speed - that you must pull over to let others by, that it is OK to cut corners and use the wrong side of the road - because your skill level SUCKS, you should go there to "TEST" your skill, etc. That motorcycle could have gone much quicker. All you had to do, is look at this video again and see that in NO CORNER ANYWHERE did any parts of the bike come close to touching pavement. Present day motorcycles can approach lean angle in the 50+ degree range, professionals are doing it - AT TRACKS- in the 60+ range. This is where going fast SHOULD be done. It's called "TRACK DAY". Want to go fast, go to a track!!!!! Did ya notice the AMBULANCE ??? Hopefully all the idiot drivers - cars and bikes- will go there and leave the rest of the great roads for the rest of us!!!!! See the video "Asshole at the Tail of the dragon"!!!
Honestly, it looks fun, but with the amount of people touching the yellow line everyday and the amount of traffic, not worth a 11 hour drive to the Dragon. I'll stay in my rural areas with the hidden secrets in the midwest.
0:57 it does not have 318 curves. Anytime a curve changes in radius that is counted as 2 or more curves as confirmed by the Tail of the Dragon web site. I have seen far more curves in the Alps.
I agree to a degree that if a vehicle is in your lane, that is their problem, BUT all road users have a legal responsibility to do what they reasonably can to avoid accidents
@@504RoadTrips it’s ok if you love in tennessee then you will get people calling it that a lot and we understand that it sounds like blownt because of the ou sound but it is still pretty funny to hear people calling it that.
It has not been known as "the tail of the dragon". The "tail of the dragon" is actually the website/store which was/is ran by Ron and Nancy Johnson. It is "the dragon", "deals gap" or " the hill".
@@chalupanotomatoes9609 it was never called "the tail of the dragon" until Ron and Nancy's online shop called it that. The locals before it became known called it the gap or the hill.
@@vancejones7698 it was referred to me as the tail of the dragon 14 years ago, not sure when they set up shop just speaking from my personal interactions.
@@chalupanotomatoes9609 like I said. Before their online store started marketing it as "the tail of the dragon" it wasn't called that. You show up anytime before it was being "marketed" and ask for directions to the tail of the dragon and you wouldn't have gotten an answer. Had you asked for Calderwood highway they would've sent you right to it.
@@vancejones7698 Decided to do my own research, the website first started in 2000. 22 years ago, makes sense why I've heard it referred to as the TOTD.
I want to drive this on my bike.
@@JohnnieV you’d have to pedal hard!
@@504RoadTrips bike as in bike with an engine. lol.
@@JohnnieV how many wheels does it have?
@@504RoadTrips only 2.
my gaad i just went thru here in my explorer sport and it was 1 of the best days of my life ..bucket list item for sure
What a lovely-looking road. Wouldn't mind driving on it myself :)
Just went through this today! One hell of a ride!
- On a bike, or in a cage?
I'm just now looking into making this ride, on a vacation coming from Texas.
We did this drive a year ago in our Tesla Model Y on Full Self Drive. Bought a great tee shirt. Saw so many expensive cars zooming down the road in caravans. Had a great family reunion at Fontana resort. On a cruise ship a few months later, had my Dragon’s Tail shirt on and ran into a group of driving enthusiasts who had just done the road as well. By the way Tesla FSD was slow on the curves. Had to pull over to let others pass us. Yeah Tesla!
My daughter and I were hit by a large black bear that ran across the Dragon into the path of our Mini Cooper back in 2009 so the warning of wildlife at 4:53 is a very accurate one.
Hope y'all are okay.
Co-worker crashed his Electra glide on this road 10 years ago. Was 7 or more hours before anyone found him down the embankment and a few more hours before they brought him up to the road. He was a very long time recovering from the crash.
He’s lucky to be alive. Nobody witnessed the accident?
@@504RoadTrips he was at the tail end of a group of 8 riders. He had fallen behind enough to be out of sight of the rest. By the time the group had realized they were missing one guy they were miles ahead. There weren't any marks on the road where he went over which made locating him very difficult.
@@unsafe_at_any_speed wow. So they were actively looking for him the entire time and it still took all that time to locate him! That’s scary.
@@504RoadTrips I can see this happening in the summer time due to the amount foliage, looks like a completely different place during the winter though
God my worst nightmare. Imagine being injured and incapacitated in bear country.
I was lucky enough to drive the Tail after a couple days of rain. Weather forecast was for another rainy day but the rain never showed and I had the drive essentially to myself in my '81 Vette. Only saw a few cars driving the opposite direction the entire route. One of a few great stops I made on a great cross country road trip.
Excellent job with the video. Thanks for posting.
Yikes! I'd never try to drive that! As a matter of fact, just watching the video almost made me carsick! My hat's off to you for this amazing video!
You're in my backyard here. We love this drive.
This is on my list. I usually do the Kancamagus a couple times a year. Great drive through the white mountains
Kangamangus Highway is great! Im from PA. Tail of the dragon is amazing but what makes the drive completely awesome is the Blue Ridge Parkway. I get on it in Front Royal (Skyline) and drive it the entire way down to Cherokee North Carolina. There is no better ride than that. I do it once a year.
Have you tried 7 in Conn. ?
Route 100 in Vermont is a great drive as well.
I live in Colebrook NH and the Kancamagus during the fall is beautiful but extremely busy. We are heading out in June of 2023 for the whole month and we are riding down to the tail. Riding a Harley Tri Glide
Good example of an uneducated and/or selfish rider ahead of the camera vehicle for most of the way. You will get caught up on the Tail of the Dragon, please be courteous and let faster traffic through using one of the very many pull offs. You are also likely to catch up to slower traffic on there, please do not tailgate to entice people to drive above their skill or vehicle capability and risk an accident but do wave, honk, beep or signal when slower traffic lets you by. Very nice video.
I think she was very unsure of herself, maybe not familiar with the bike or used to a smaller one. We saw a few panic moves and drags of the back tire. I really wish we had turned around and made a couple more runs. Not that our Civic could have gone much faster.
Thanks for watching!
I am proud to say my wife and I conquered the dragon in our Toyota sienna doing about 35 to 45 miles an hour, However we were defeated by two sports bikes a BMW M3 and a Porsche spider that passed us like we were sitting still
Can't wait, scheduled to vacation there in May if Covid crisis is better, if not will just drive it and come on home! Looks like a blast, although my sister got an upset stomach just watching the video so it may not be for everyone. One of my favorite road trips was over the Continental Divide. I was lucky enough to live in Colorado when I had a 2001 Audi TT Roadster Quattro. It was an absolute blast. Rather than worrying about tress on the sides of the road you had to worry about whether the guard rails would hold as the drop could be a couple thousand feet.
Wife and I rode this in 2013, safely. Thanks
Hi fellow bikers...I'm from France, I would give a lot to comes over to ride this fantastic route, but now in my mid seventies, and still riding (an XJR1300) I doubt I'll make it now .
We do have some fabulous roads over here, with not so much traffic, one is the "Route Napoleon" if you type in "Route Napoleon Motorcycles" you'll see what I mean, maybe not as exciting as the tail, but some great scenery. Take care all you bikers out there, no matter where you are or what you ride...
On the upside if you do manage to come here there are websites where you can rent a motorcycle, and as long as you have a valad motorcycle license/ endorsement you're good to go.
@@GrumpyIan
Hi Grumpy....some years back I did think about it, but when you retire things get a little tight especially now in the financial climate we have in today's world ...still, if I ever come into an inheritance from some relative I've not heard about, or win the lottery, than sadly it'll not happen. Only good biking news for me is I live in a particularly beautiful part of France, with traffic free roads, stunning scenery, and plenty of cafes and restaurants in the villages I ride through, so it's not all bad news, Through the modern technology and media I can put the Dragon on the TV and almost be there, not the same, but....... take care, ride safe.
OMG CANNOT WAIT! LAST WEEK OF JUNE 2021!!
Headed there next week for a week. Excited to ride the tail but more to to explore the area. I know there is a lot of great places to find.
@@Metalbladelawncare check out Helen
Im thinkin of heading there same time as well
We just did out first Dragon run on Friday 10/23/2020 in a Saturn Sky. Beautiful weather, top down. bucket list item checked off.
Something everyone should do at least once!
This is on my bucket list.
I’ve done it both by car and bicycle. The bicycle was a great experience.
I'm from NC and it's a nice ride. took the primitive dirt road once from Cades Cove through the woods came out on this road. always better on a Harley
Fantastic camera work, and the 2x was a great idea. The Dragon is so technical it'll wear out all but the most hard core enthusiasts. Agree that NC28 is the better road although the speed limit there has been reduced from 55 to 35. Both roads will decimate your tires. But what fun!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for the video. I have to drive this way for a work assignment and you have eased my fears
What?
What is it you do?
I know somebody that didn't know the area but somehow got on this road in a tractor trailer lol. I forget how etc because it's been 15 or 20 yrs ago.. but I remember a delivery had then somewhere and the next pickup was around Vonore. Said back in actually carrying a road atlas days and figured it'd be a little smaller road etc but it saved a couple hours or so if they'd went around like to Dalton and up. Anyway.. I do vividly recall the pucker factor described to me that included a lot of prayers lol. Said they was never more happy in life than when finished and got on a bigger road. Anyway I've never been but that's my driving experience story as told.😂
been there, love the road. I did it in a Tundra with little to no trouble.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this video. From what I saw The Tail of the Dragon might be over rated. We live in SE Ohio where we have the "Triple Nickel" (Rt.555) Rt. 78 and one of my favorites Rt. 374 through the Hocking Hills region.
We have traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive numerous times and love them, but I always stayed away from the Tail because of how others drive. I value our lives quite a bit.
Once again, Thank you for this video. Ride safely and enjoy every journey.
I've lived in both areas you mention. ToD is very fun but if your apprehensive go on a tues or thurs around noon. Hardly anyone on it at those times. Also make sure to ride the cherohala.com/
I rode the Tail, Back, Claw and Head of the Dragon,,, then rode the 555 on my way back north homeward. All very memorable !!
I live up in the notthern part of Ohio. I love the Ohio rides you mention, especially since I can make it there and back in a day :)
I ran it yesterday day in a 2000 Grand Marquis.... I had fun keeping up with the sports cars...lol
pretty cool road to drive on. it is a bit of a tourist trap, so there's a lot of traffic. a good alternative is suches loop, in north Georgia
M B I wish so much that we could have taken my Saab 9-3 Viggen convertible. It has Z-rated tires and ~250 horses. But, like all Saabs like to be, or wait to go, she’s beside the house, and needs to get some minor electrical work that nobody in New Orleans is willing to touch. We have one “maybe mechanic” who *might* fix it; Jason has the OBD-2 software to fix it, but the car is 9” off the ground on the jack stands, sooo; or, best of all, two dealers in Houston can do it, but… I have to transport it.
Jason is still about salty about that little traffic jam at lunchtime in ATL, and while I want to go to ATL to shop (at IKEA!!) I bet y’all do have great and scenic roads there.
[edit: Spelling]
excellent and informative video. thank you.
It looks cool. Our club is thinking about going here this summer
Bike club?
There may be many roads like this in Europe, and with higher speed limits but it’s not embraced at all. God bless America for realising it’s there to be enjoyed, that it isn’t policed into extinction. Even having a website for a section of good road in the UK would be denounced by the fun police aka health and safety mob for encouraging speed or something. So nannied here now. So want to do a US road trip and include this section!
I've driven this one, and I've also driven NC28 from Bryson City to Franklin, and honestly I prefer that one. More variety in the turn radii, more elevation changes mid-turn, an all-around more diverse experience. The Dragon felt almost like a metronome, at least to me.
Love it there. We get up there about 3 times a month 🤙
That looks like a pretty drive
These are all just smooth forgiving low speed corners and it flows so well. People over hype this road for been more dangerous than it is mostly because most of them have never really seen or heard of many other roads. This is definitely more forgiving than most other roads , If people manage to crash here it's because they're doing something stupid like cutting lanes or they're a complete novice.
Low speed corners? Sounds like someone who doesn't drive fast
@@AM-wi6zo I don't think you've driven fast or anywhere close to a cars limit of grip in your life mate go out to a track so everyone can have a good laugh at you out there.
Weekends are especially good to avoid. I was in the lead of a group of '57 Porsche replicas and got nailed by the Tennessee State Police for doing 46 mph. That little indiscretion cost me a night in traffic school school and a 154.50 fine. The charges would have been greater if I had not agreed to do the school and I would have received a mark on my license. If I had gotten another ticket within five years I would have gotten the mark anyway. I behaved or was more careful afterwards so I didn't have another incident.
I'd like to see some try riding a yellow banana skateboard all the way.Many times myself and other road our boards down the The first 1 that crashed had to by a case beer.Didnt have all the traffic it has today.Man those were good times back then
@@robertrosson1990 haven't seen skateboards on the dragon, but saw an old guy on a bicycle on the dragon a few weeks ago 😂
The problem for me on roads like this is there will always be someone faster than me even if I'm maintaining the speed limit or a bit over. Some will hang back until it's safe to pass but a lot will ride your tail making the drive uncomfortable. Even if you pull over and let them pass there will be another driver in short order doing the same thing. Equally aggravating is a driver that's uncomfortable maintaining the speed limit and has no thought of pulling over. And in a lot of those cases their comfortable speed is a few miles an hour slower than the gearing on my vehicle so I have to keep touching the brakes or use an even lower/slower gear. I love touring and would love to drive TotD but I tend to stay away from tourist roads such as this.
wouldn't even worry about this one theres plenty of cooler roads in the country this is just a glorified tourist trap at this point
I drove a crane across the dragon in 2007. I just drove part of it yesterday and made a small video.
I'm currently working on getting my endorsment so I can legally drive a motorcycle on the road. Hopefully by the end of this year or sometime next year my dad and I can road trip this... if gas gets to a reasonble price by then....
I don't see gas prices dropping until the current dictator is out of office.
Great video, excellent narration, lots of valuable information A++++++++++
Glad you liked it!
Me and my buddies going on a bike trip he's coming from Pittsburgh area I'm leaving the Camp Lejeune area in North Carolina we're meeting up somewhere around there in hitting this route up just checking it out on video before I go LOL
In originally from western north Carolina but this is my first time hearing about this
I’d been hearing about it for years, so when we found ourselves just an hour away from it, we had to go drive it. The problem is that it’s in a very out-of-the-way place, nowhere close to an Interstate, so it’s not convenient to most people unless they specifically want to go there.
Fantastic informative video. If only everybody that rides or drives TOTD would use good common sense, it would be so pleasurable.
I've seen videos of people in sports cars racing through there. I don't know how they manage to do that with the traffic. And even with the most ground-hugging suspensions, it still seems like you couldn't go very fast. I guess there are times when the traffic is light. It would be fun if it were a closed course and a more controlled environment, but we enjoyed the drive the way it was.
Suches pass and Blood Mountain in Georgia has similar technical turns.
Piece of cake for us with school buses and trucks on the road
pretty cool , on my bday!
Honestly, I'd love to do it but if you can, road trip to the Ozarks...
A route through their "dragon" jasper to Melbourne.
It's far less traveled, and easily just as challenging and just as beautiful.
I’m guessing you mean the route that mostly covers AR-14? Looks like a good future trip!
@@504RoadTrips just drove the portion AR9 from mountain view to Melbourne today and it is amazing.
Plan on doing the rest as I can, the windiest part is going east from Jasper on 74, then south on 123. Zoom in on the map near Campbell gap.
Then I would go east on 16 at sand gap, take 27 via 16 to Marshal, then 27 to Harriet which changes into 14 as you continue east.
At Allison cross AR5, to continue on AR9 to Melbourne.
I was coming back to tennessee from bryson city nc in my little vw tiguan suv and accidentally found myself on this road and I looked over at my friend and said “dayum this road is curvy!” Lmao
7:57 - Damn, did someone just have an accident? This road is scarier than the notorious Nordschleife. That tip about having a stick shift is true. I use my transmission to brake quite frequently. It's a 6 speed VW GTI, perfect for the Dragon but I would still prefer the R so I can have AWD.
I think someone may have wiped out on their motorcycle.
great video
Glad you enjoyed it
Hello to all my brothers and sister who rode on two wheels God bless everyone I will have the privilege of writing tail of the Dragon in late April with my wife I believe I have done my homework thoroughly to enjoy the ride starting from one end to the other and then back no more than third gear and allowing all the riders who are going faster than me to give Slow down on the shoulder so they can bypass I am not in a rush even though I am a experienced rider because I have my wife with me and we are enjoying the entire week after that I will explore The other motorcycle trails take care God bless everyone and ride safe Eric a.k.a. Hollywood owner of black Z x14
I am going this year
Did you know that US 129 goes from Florida to Tennessee?
Was fortunate to drive that road in our vettes before they kept dropping the speed limit.
Not sure what dropping the speed limit has to do with anything. 😁
@@GoVols2015 Has to do with not getting busted as easily and they didn't patrol it near as much when it was 55 through there. Now that it's 35, the cops are all over that road. At 55 most people could barely maintain that if at all so they had very little incentive to patrol the road looking for the few who would be 10 over and worth ticketing. Now, they can go out there and bust people with high dollar speeding tickets, it's worth their time now.
@@MotoAtheist one easy simple trick. Ride down the Dragon (from NC) to the Overlook. Turn around and ride back up the Dragon. You will know if there are any cops, or if there are, where they are at. There’s only a few hang out spots they stop at anyway. Most of them won’t pull you over unless you are crossing the yellow or not holding the proper line.
Cool!
I didn’t catch the time it took you to drive the dragon 🐉? How long does it take @ safe speeds?
From beginning to end of filming, it was 27 minutes. If there was no traffic, at a reasonable speed, it could probably be done in 18 minutes or less. In a properly equipped vehicle, closed course, it could be done a lot faster than that.
If you have an automatic, you can also use neutral to force it down.
Neutral disengages the engine from the wheels, and reduces your control over the car. Very dangerous on a mountain road (and illegal), as your brakes will fail pretty quickly if you use them to control your speed going downhill for too long. We actually experienced brake fade on the Blue Ridge Parkway in a rental van that had too weak of a transmission to keep the speed down.
Puerto Rico has these kinds of roads in the mountains
Thanks for posting and good tips, but I feel like I was just watching the back of a silver Hyundai Santa Fe most of time. I would have given it a 10 second lea
d so I could watch the road and not his brake lights.
Sorry about that. I had someone riding my ass the whole time, so it wasn't easy to back off too far. We should have made a few trips, and picked the best video, but I was running out of daylight and battery.
Driving it in couple weeks in an AMG GLC63
I just did this in my 2019 Toyota Highlander
Does watching you folks drive the Tail count as our first time driving?
No, you actually have to drive it. 😢
When you do carry a barf bag.
A Datsun 510 would own this road.
Coming on a Monday at about 3am in my 911 Carrera to handle these curves.
I just did my first 100 miles this year during the summer and yesterday Nov 26th I just drove from the bronx to North Carolina for 15 hours and did 763 miles. Is there any good roads like the dragon in north Carolina?
I’m sure there are, up in the mountains. I doubt there’s anything as heavily traveled as this one. The highway north out of Cherokee, heading up to Gatlinburg is pretty interesting.
Western North Carolina has lots of winding mountain roads.
What exact car did you use to drive this? I have an 09 Honda Civic SI.
This was a base model 2015 Civic Coupe. We now have a 2020 Civic Si sedan.
Thank you so much!
How does this differ from Ceasars Head in SC ?
The Dragon has about 5x as many curves and is on steeper terrain. But Caesar’s Head looks interesting. We’ll have to try to go see that if we ever make it out that way.
Manual transmissions RULE!
Absolutely!
Nice job
Thanks!
Reminds me of West By God Virginia.
So if your video was 14ish minutes at 2x that means the drive was around half an hour ?
Yes, that's about right. If it was possible to consistently do the 30 MPH speed limit the whole way, it would be a little over 20 minutes, but some of those curves can't be taken at 30 MPH in most cars, and there was a lot of traffic when we went, so that slowed things down.
One thing I could never understand is if you’re doing the speed limit, or 5-10 above, on a two lane like this, why should you have to slow down to pull off to let someone who is speeding excessively go by you?
I think that rule is more for the sightseers who want to go 20 MPH. The speed limit is pretty strict on here. But if someone is wanting to try to go breakneck speed and they’re riding your tail, it’s always a good idea to let them around, and get yourself out of harm’s way.
Let them do what they want,if they want to crash,let them go. Just get out of the way so they don’t involve you. You’re probably one of those drivers that stay in the left lane and tries to keep faster vehicles from passing right?
It’s called a “legal “ speed limit which means those wanting to exceed at an unsafe speed and putting other people’s lives and property in danger is ILLEGAL. Which means that they are the ones in the wrong,not me. If such a person were to cause a wreck with one of my family members, they just might not have to worry about going jail! Plain and simple! Would any of y’all move over and let a murderer run by you if you were able to prevent it? Same thing! It’s about taking ownership of who is in the wrong!
@@stevefranklin9920 are you the police? If not then you don’t take the law into your own hands. That gets people killed also. If that driver wants to go around you,let him go! If by refusing to get out of their way and he decides to use his vehicle to move you out of his way,and it causes you to lose control of your vehicle,and gets you injured or killed or one of your family members,when all you had to do was pull over and let him go around…your actions have consequences as well. Taking the law into your own hands is against the law.
@@SuperD1960 I’m not in no way taking the law into my own hands if someone comes up behind me speeding and I refuse to pull over so they can continue to break the law and endanger others! If I am abiding the speed limit, THEY ARE THE ONE IN THE WRONG!!! NOT ME!! They can slow down and obey the law like most every one else. I use to be a street racer and have ran 140 mph down a main road where I live. If someone had seen me coming that fast but still pulled out of a side road, it would’ve in no way been their fault! It would totally be mine. I have matured in mind and age enough now to see how wrong, and stupid I was putting others lives in jeopardy just because I wanted to drive fast. Emphasis on I. I am just trying to be a law abiding citizen. Question for you, if someone was coming in your yard with a gun headed towards a family member, what would you do? Do you not understand that a speeding vehicle is the same as a loaded gun?
We Tennesseans pronounce Blount County “Blunt.”
You considered some sections with 3 or 4 turns as one or two turns several times. That said, they should make this a closed course a few times a year
It’s hard to tell what is multiple curves, and what are spiral curves. I think I just counted when the turns reversed directions or if there was an obvious straightaway between two curves.
Closed course?! No way. It would be a bloodbath of burning cars everywhere.
Much like the 14 mile road to my house. Deep in heart of Kentucky that's just a normal road.
Same here in Switzerland, tons of roads like this around here
In the 90’s my mother and I accidentally got on this nightmare of a road trying to take a shortcut. This road needs to be marked as one big giant hazard on every map in the known universe. I’ve never been so carsick..EVER. And I was the one driving.
Same thing happened to me ..
There’s a lot of nice roads all over the place here in America, but people don’t usually think there are a ton of nice B roads as they call them in England.
Gravity corner can seriously mess your balance up
Your comment about how slow you had to go, is the NUMBER ONE reason to avoid that area!! The posted speed limits that I saw on the video all said "30 MPH". WAY TO many go there thinking that is a minimum speed limit. And video after video tell you that if you are doing that speed - that you must pull over to let others by, that it is OK to cut corners and use the wrong side of the road - because your skill level SUCKS, you should go there to "TEST" your skill, etc. That motorcycle could have gone much quicker. All you had to do, is look at this video again and see that in NO CORNER ANYWHERE did any parts of the bike come close to touching pavement. Present day motorcycles can approach lean angle in the 50+ degree range, professionals are doing it - AT TRACKS- in the 60+ range. This is where going fast SHOULD be done. It's called "TRACK DAY". Want to go fast, go to a track!!!!! Did ya notice the AMBULANCE ??? Hopefully all the idiot drivers - cars and bikes- will go there and leave the rest of the great roads for the rest of us!!!!! See the video "Asshole at the Tail of the dragon"!!!
Honestly, it looks fun, but with the amount of people touching the yellow line everyday and the amount of traffic, not worth a 11 hour drive to the Dragon. I'll stay in my rural areas with the hidden secrets in the midwest.
reducing to 30mph 55mph is like cutting the balls off the dragon.
Is that music 5 Finger Death Punch?
No. That would surely result in a copyright strike.
I've driven this many times
Pretty cool road I know better ones but not letting anyone know, I'll keep them for myself.
0:57 it does not have 318 curves. Anytime a curve changes in radius that is counted as 2 or more curves as confirmed by the Tail of the Dragon web site. I have seen far more curves in the Alps.
Us Jamaicans do good on this road
THE WHEELIE PEOPLE 0 are you on the Bobsled team?
I agree to a degree that if a vehicle is in your lane, that is their problem, BUT all road users have a legal responsibility to do what they reasonably can to avoid accidents
“blownt county” lol we call it blunt
Yeah, I know. Others have commented. I failed to research this one thoroughly.
@@504RoadTrips it’s ok if you love in tennessee then you will get people calling it that a lot and we understand that it sounds like blownt because of the ou sound but it is still pretty funny to hear people calling it that.
Where you on a motorcycle?
Tennessee uses what’s called a “spiral” curve so someone might’ve counted them
Possibly. You think they count it as a curve every time the radius of the curve changes?
@@504RoadTrips We just went out on a long haul.
It has not been known as "the tail of the dragon". The "tail of the dragon" is actually the website/store which was/is ran by Ron and Nancy Johnson. It is "the dragon", "deals gap" or " the hill".
Heard it called multiple things, but most commonly: tail of the dragon.
@@chalupanotomatoes9609 it was never called "the tail of the dragon" until Ron and Nancy's online shop called it that. The locals before it became known called it the gap or the hill.
@@vancejones7698 it was referred to me as the tail of the dragon 14 years ago, not sure when they set up shop just speaking from my personal interactions.
@@chalupanotomatoes9609 like I said. Before their online store started marketing it as "the tail of the dragon" it wasn't called that. You show up anytime before it was being "marketed" and ask for directions to the tail of the dragon and you wouldn't have gotten an answer. Had you asked for Calderwood highway they would've sent you right to it.
@@vancejones7698 Decided to do my own research, the website first started in 2000. 22 years ago, makes sense why I've heard it referred to as the TOTD.
Its pronounced Blunt county. I know it's spelled Blount.
A curve would be any place the road aint straight right?lol
I think they count any change in the angle of the road as a curve.
Would have preferred normal speed for your video along with ambient sound and no commentary. But I understand this was to be informative.
It’s “Blunt” County.
It must really suck that a 11 mile stretch of a road is the best the east coast only has!
Birds aren't real
We’re not supposed to talk about that in public. Big brother is monitoring these comments.
Ah 150 seems saffe
Interestingly this narration seems to be word for word what is covered on the topic by Wikipedia