Back Of The Dragon
This is a collection of images from the Back of the Dragon - Virginia's Route 16 - in Smyth and Tazewell counties in the southwest corner of the state.
I have been coming to the mountains of southwest Virginia and driving this road since I met my future wife more than 35 years ago. It was only this year that I found that someone has provided an excellent name to the road that I knew only as Route 16. The Back of the Dragon is the moniker for the 32 miles between Marion, Virginia and Tazewell, a road that is the mainstay artery for people living in Rich Valley traversing to Marion for shopping and restaurants. Now this road is attracting visitors on Harley’s and BMWs and Corvettes who want to drive the banked reverse curves, switchbacks, and mountain grades that make this such a challenging road.
The name Back of the Dragon is evocative of the up and down ridges and spines of a mythical dragon. But the name is also a variation of a road name that has already existed for some time. Deal’s Gap in Tennessee and North Carolina has 318 curves, hairpin turns, blind corners, and very similar physiography over an eleven mile section of US Route 129. It has been called the best motorcycle and sports car road in America and has also been featured, not surprisingly, as one of the most dangerous roads in the world on Discovery Channel. A group of motorcycle enthusiasts started a club in 1992 and gave the road the name Tail of the Dragon along with a map showing the road as the outline of a dragon’s tail to popularize the road. In 2000, they created a website and the road attracts riders from across the country and around the world.
The people of Smyth and Tazewell Counties in Virginia, were no doubt seeking to create similar interest in tourism when they formalized the name of the Back of the Dragon for Route 16 in 2012. In fact, in the Back of the Dragon logo seen in the photo, the line “eleven… try thirty-two” is a play on Deal’s Gap, effectively saying come try our 32 miles of driving, three times longer than the Tail. There are some 260 curves in the 32 miles with some magnificent views including three mountain crossings and a scenic panorama of Hungry Mother Lake. When looking at a map of the Dragon, it is not evident just how much the road winds, turns, and cuts. These photos will hopefully add some sense of the beauty not only of the mountains here, but of the road itself.
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