Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
12.
Watauga Lake
Jutting away from Rte. 321 at the hamlet of Hampton, the drive follows Rte. 19E to Roan
Mountain State Park. You can drive to the 6,285-foot summit, where Catawba rhododen-
drons form a 600-acre natural garden. In late June, during the Roan Mountain Rhododen-
dron Festival, the road to the top is like a storybook path to a crimson-and-purple sea of
blossoms.
Once you return to earth, backtrack to Rte. 321 and head east to Watauga Lake. In the
1940s the entire town of Butler had to move when the Tennessee Valley Authority built
331-foot-high Watauga Dam, creating the 16-mile-long lake. Watauga, bordered by forests
andcampsitesandfilledwithbass,servesasthegatewaytotheDoeValley,wherecentury-
old homesteads are surrounded by rich family farms. Tennessee, Virginia, and North Caro-
lina huddle around this serenely uncrowded corner of the Appalachians, where the drive
terminates at the aptly named community of Mountain City.
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