Saturday, June 25, 2016

Cumberland Gap & Other Places

Today's drive took us to Cumberland Gap at the Kentucky-Tennessee-Virginia state line. You probably know the story of Danial Boone and the others that found the "gap". The National Park Service operates the park. We drove up to Pinnacle Point that has a great view of Harrogate, TN in the valley south of the gap, the gap itself, the city of Middleboro, Ky to the north and east to the Wilderness Road in Virginia. We walked a path into Virginia to get to the overlook. 

US25E goes through a 4600 foot tunnel under the mountain next to the gap. It's a four lane road started in 1980 and finished in 1996. It looks like it was a huge expensive project. We drove into Kentucky to check out Pine Mountain State Park. The campground was closed and it is just a long ride through the hills, not much else.

Traffic on I-75 south on the way back to our motor home was backed up for miles due to construction. We saw the problem in the morning as we drove north on I-75 so we knew it might still be a problem. Our WAZE software indicated the problem at about 430 pm so we took a detour through Rocky Top Tennessee (you heard of it?) and a few other small towns. If you travel, you need Google maps!

The link to the NPS web site is www.nps.gov/cuga/index.htm



Entering the 4600 foot tunnel from the Tennessee end.

It's a long tunnel and the two southbound lanes are on the other side of the wall on the left.

Daylight at the Kentucky end.

We walked into Virginia on the short path to Pinnacle Point.

The path to the Point.

The Pinnacle Point where you can see three states.
Looking toward Virginia and the Wilderness Road.
The town below is Cumberland Gap TN. Beyond that is US25E southbound and Harrogate TN
The "gap" is below the Pinnacle Point observation area.
The US25E tunnel runs through this mountain. Middleboro Ky is to the right of the mountain.

Leaving the point and who do we see? Could it be Gary Whisman!?!?


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