Back of the Dragon: The Road as Destination
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series.
Image courtesy of backofthedragon.com
Most roads exist to take us somewhere else.
We drive them without giving them much thought, watching the miles disappear until we reach a trailhead, a scenic overlook, or a small town. The road is simply the space between where we are and where we want to be.
The Back of the Dragon turns that idea upside down.
Stretching through Southwest Virginia, it has become a destination in its own right. Travelers come not because of what waits at the end, but because of what unfolds along the way. Each climb reveals another ridge. Around the next bend, the view changes again. The terrain shapes the route, and the route reveals the terrain.
People arrive on motorcycles or in sports cars, family SUVs, and pickup trucks. Some come for the challenge of the drive. Others simply want to spend an afternoon winding through scenery that changes with every mile. Whatever brings them here, they discover the same thing: this isn’t a road you hurry through. It stays with you long after the drive is over.
Image courtesy of VisitSmythCountyVA.com
A Road Shaped by the Mountains
The Back of the Dragon stretches for about 32 miles between Tazewell and Marion, crossing Big Walker Mountain, Brushy Mountain, and Clinch Mountain. Along the way, it bends through 438 curves, a number that has become almost legendary among those who know the route.
But those curves weren’t engineered simply to make the drive exciting.
They exist because older mountain roads had little choice but to follow the land. Instead of cutting straight through ridges or carving broad highways across them, this route climbs, descends, and twists around the contours beneath it. Each turn reflects the ground it crosses.
That’s part of what makes the drive feel so different from traveling an interstate. The view never settles for long. Forest gives way to open country, distant ridges appear and disappear, and each climb offers another glimpse across Southwest Virginia.
Rather than overpowering the land, the route adapts to it.
Experiencing the Dragon
Driving the Back of the Dragon isn’t a matter of settling into cruise control and watching the miles slip by. The route demands your attention and rewards it with a view that keeps changing.
One moment, hardwood forest closes around the pavement, with sunlight flickering across a lake. A few minutes later, the trees part and the horizon opens across folded ridges. As the route climbs and descends, no two miles feel quite the same.
The drive changes with the seasons. Spring brings fresh green hillsides and flowering trees. Summer deepens the shade beneath mature hardwoods. Autumn colors the slopes red and gold. In winter, bare branches reveal contours hidden during the rest of the year.
The best way to enjoy the drive is to resist the urge to hurry. Pull into an overlook. Step out for a few minutes and listen to the wind moving through the trees. Look beyond the next ridge instead of around the next curve.
The Back of the Dragon gives its best to travelers who take time to notice where they are.
The Communities Along the Way
One of the pleasures of driving the Back of the Dragon is discovering that the route is only part of the trip. The towns and stops along the way give travelers places to pause and spend more time in Southwest Virginia.
At the southern end, Marion serves as a gateway. Its downtown offers restaurants, shops, and historic buildings that can turn the drive into a longer afternoon. Nearby, Hungry Mother State Park adds a lake, wooded trails, and picnic areas.
Farther north, Big Walker Lookout offers one of the broadest panoramic views in the region. From the observation tower, ridge after ridge stretches toward the horizon, offering a five-state view that is difficult to appreciate from behind the wheel.
The route ends in Tazewell, where the setting and small-town character make a fitting close to the drive. Like Marion, it is a place worth exploring rather than merely passing through.
These stops broaden the trip without competing with its main attraction. They give travelers a chance to see Southwest Virginia from beyond the windshield.
Image courtesy of backofthedragon.com
More Than 438 Curves
It’s easy to understand why the Back of the Dragon is often described by a single number: 438 curves in 32 miles. That statistic has helped make the route famous far beyond Southwest Virginia.
But after you’ve driven it, the number isn’t what stays with you.
You remember the ridges unfolding beyond an overlook and the forest closing in before the view opens again. More than anything, you remember that this route still follows the shape of the land instead of forcing the land to accommodate it.
Long before engineers could carve straighter highways through mountains, roads like this found their way by working with the terrain rather than against it.
That’s what makes the Back of the Dragon different.
Most roads exist to take us somewhere else. This one invites us to pay attention to the country between the beginning and the end. In an age when so much travel is about arriving as quickly as possible, the Back of the Dragon reminds us that sometimes the best part of the journey is the road itself.
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