About Road to Nowhere
Lakeview Drive leaves Bryson City, winds into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, passes several overlooks, and then does something a highway is not supposed to do. It stops.
At the end of the pavement stands a roughly 1,200-foot tunnel bored straight through Tunnel Ridge. The tunnel was completed in 1970 as part of a much larger road project connected with communities and transportation routes disrupted by the creation of Fontana Lake and the national park. The larger route was never finished.
Today the tunnel is permanently closed to motorized traffic. Visitors can park near the end of Lakeview Drive and continue through on foot, entering a long unlit passage before emerging onto trails on the other side. A flashlight makes the walk considerably less mysterious.
The unfinished route is widely known as the Road to Nowhere, a nickname that became more accurate than anyone involved with the original project intended. Parking requirements, trail conditions, and temporary closures can change, so visitors should check the National Park Service before making the drive.