Parson Branch Road

Total Miles
7.9

Technical Rating

Easy

Best Time

Spring, Summer, Fall

Trail Type

Full-Width Road

Accessible By

Trail Overview

Parson Branch is a full gravel, one-way, scenic route that leads through the Smoky Mountains. The road is maintained, however, you may find the occasional tree down after heavy storms. This is usually not a problem. There are also many shallow water crossings, all less than 1ft deep. 4WD is not needed at all for the route and is friendly for stock-height vehicles.

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Difficulty

One vehicle wide with occasional pull-offs. One-way route. Many shallow water crossings, all less than 1ft deep. Possibility of trees on the road after heavy storms. If not for those mentioned, I would give this trail a 1 for its rating.

History

The route was completed in 1838. It connects Cades Cove to Tail of the Dragon.

Technical Rating

Status Reports

Nice one-way trail with several stream crossings. One rutted out climb but everything else was easy, as expected.

Heavy rain previous day made some of the steep climbs a bit slippery with some mild washouts. A couple water crossings and a couple hills had some surprisingly deep whoops. Other than these factors it was an easy and very beautiful trail. One important note that this one-way trail comes out in the middle of highway 129 AKA “Tail of the Dragon”. It can be busy and it’s a difficult drive for those not used to mountain driving.

Simple trail, mostly easy and flat with the exception on one rutted out hill. Had somebody in an Acadia that had to turn around in front of me, so be mindful of people that can't ready the signs stating high clearance and 4x4 required...simple stream crossings and pops you out on the Tail of the Dragon. Make sure you move for faster traffic. Got some cool pictures of the truck at least on the dragon!