Newfound Gap Road Byway

Newfound Gap Road is a 31-mile linear landscape that connects Gatlinburg, Tennessee to Cherokee, North Carolina. It forms a vital component of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s circulation system that is completely contained within the National Park’s boundaries. This roadway is often the first or primary means for visitors to acquaint themselves with the character of the National Park and its natural, recreational, and cultural resources. Travelers can stop along the roadway to take hikes and then continue on the byway to ascend along pronounced curves to view beautiful overlooks. This byway brings travelers to Clingmans Dome, which is the highest peak in the Smokies. Visitors may enjoy the picturesque view as the light filters through the birch trees and dense thickets of doghobble and rhododendron that cover the riverbanks and the byway offers visitors plenty of roadside spots for river access and fishing opportunities. This byway’s vistas, vegetation, and stone masonry structures maintain the original feeling of the National Park Service’s rustic design.

Length

31 mi / 49.9 km

Fees

None

We publish 9 places that sit on this road, across 2 states, listed in the order you meet them. This is not a route and not a drive time — it is the names, so you can put them into whatever navigation you already use.

Of those, 1 is a roadside oddity — the sort of thing you would drive past without knowing it was there.

“Off” is a straight line from the place to the road, rounded. It is not a driving distance, and the road itself is a simplified centre line, so treat a mile or two as noise.