Overall Route Rating
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4.86 out of 5 Rider Rating 4.86
36 Reviews

"The Snake" - Hwy 421 & 34

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By MCR Contributor (1039 McR Points) on May 15, 2011

Rider Reviews

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GJRonK
2629 McR Points
August 12, 2012
--This was fun from end to end. Aptly named as…
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Guest
October 18, 2013
Our group met up at 8am at the Cracker Barrel in…
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Written Directions

From Mountain City, TN, take Hwy 421 North through the Cherokee Nat'l Forest, Shady Valley, TN, and on to Holston Valley, TN. As a short side trip, take TN 133 North 10 miles to see Backbone Rock.

Scenery

This route takes you from Mountain City, TN to Holston Valley riding through the Cherokee Nat'l Forest. Riding through mountains and valleys with great vistas and ending with a view of South Holston Lake.

Drive Enjoyment

The Snake is said to have "489 curves, 3 mountains, 1 valley packed into 33 miles!" As you leave Mountain City, riding through the Cherokee Nat'l Forest, there are some great views as you ascend over the first mountain ridge on some of the best twisties in the area. The climb over the second ridge is as good as the first with more twisting/turning roads that will leave you exhilarated. The ride ends up in Holston Valley after crossing Holston Lake. We hold our Annual Rune Rally in nearby Erwin, Tn and this ribbon of asphalt one of our favorites.

Tourism Opportunities

Mountain City and Holston Valley have everything you want and need for a great get away, and in the middle of this ride is the Shady Valley Country Store. They have great burgers/sandwiches, snacks and souvenirs too.
 

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Akumu
November 23, 2019
3916 McR Points
Motorcycle Type : Sport - Touring
My #1 road in The Smokys. It should be #1 on this site, but I'm glad it's not. If it was it would suffer from it's success like The Tail of the Dragon does, and be practically unrideable thanks to people putting around it at 25mph. No, people don't seem to particularly like the idea of coming 'all the way' up to Mountain City/Shady Valley to ride this. Good. Keeps it safer, makes it easier for clean runs of this utter ribbon of perfection that I strongly recommend doing down and back, the whole way. It has it all with tight twisties, off camber twisties, hairpins, loose sweepers, flowing sweepers, tighter sweepers and even the occasional straight and passing lane and lots of pull offs for the slower traffic to move over. (Though, sometimes they don't.) I only get to the area once a year, but on the ride down to Asheville we run this route both ways, and 4 days later on the way home we do it again. It's the only road on the 50+ we do, that we do twice. It's that good, to me. Just talking about it makes me miss it. :(
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glowinthedark
July 8, 2018
4 McR Points
Motorcycle Type : Touring
I'll be riding this road again, loved it, was much better than the Tail of the Dragon.
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Captain_Anarchy
June 27, 2017
0 McR Points
Motorcycle Type : Cruiser
I love the Snake. The Dragon gets all the acclaim but the Snake is a better ride. You can make a day out of this thing easily. When you stop at the Old 421 Store, it's at a cross roads. Make sure to head north out of the store towards Damascus VA and check out Backbone Rock and enjoy that road also. It brings you back to Mountain City TN and you can take a right turn back on the snake and back to the store. All around just a good place to ride.
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