On The Way To A Meeting I Found "The Missing Link" On The Foothills Parkway

Last weekend I headed to the Sierra Club Tennessee State Chapter Meeting at Pickett CCC Memorial State Park. However, on my way, Friday, I made a slight detour to Wears Valley, so I could drive on "the Missing Link," the newly completed section of the Foothills Parkway. 

For those who aren't familiar with this stretch of highway, it is like a mini-Blue Ridge Parkway on the Tennessee side of the Great Mountain National Park (which it is actually part of). While this would be my first time on this section of the Foothills Parkway it wasn't mine on this U.S. Park Service (USFS) highway. I had been on it before, first a couple times on the Cosby Section and then once on the Chilhowee Mountain Section. Oh, if you have ever driven from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg you have been on it too.

It has been almost a year since it opened, but I really hadn't gotten a chance to head that way. I wanted to see Fall Colors, so I said why not to a detour. I did one before last Autumn's meeting at Mt. Cammerer. This new section clocks in at 16 miles and runs from Wears Valley to Walland and this is the way I drove it. Like the other parts of the Foothills Parkway, it has plenty of pull-offs. But, how it gets the name the "Missing Link" is the bridges at the top of this section. 

These bridges, inspired by the Linville Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway, that "float" around the ridge. This section was started in 1966 but stalled where these bridges would go giving it the name "the Missing Link." In 2009 there was finally the funding to finish and in November of 2018, it opened. It is an impressive feat, ever bit as much as the Linville Viaduct. 

You can get out at Dean Stone Bridge. What was interesting here there were three hornets' nest. Because of this I and a guy from Louisiana named it Hornet Hill. Anyway, with its completion, there is now a 33-mile continuous stretch from US-129 (the Dragon) at Chilhowee Lake to US-321 at Wears Valley. 

Speaking of the Chilhowee Section I continued on to it for a short hike to Look Rock. My first visit to this former fire tower was in May of 2016. It is a short hike, about half-a-mile to the tower. Like most of my trip, there were light showers and the views were obscured by clouds, but it was still beautiful. Hopefully someday soon they rest of the Foothills Parkway can be completed, but until then there is a lot to enjoy on this beautiful drive.