I26 Asheville to Pikeville, KY

One of my favorite roads...cost a bunch to build. Long steady climb and decent in a beautiful area. By late October the leaves will be past peak.

We LIVE here, so we pull it lots!

I-26 turns into Rt 23 as soon as you cross the Virginia border and is a 4-lane, limited access highway for most of the route. It does go up and down some mountains, but you are IN the mountains, so it's a no-brainer.

From Asheville, it will take you approximately 4 1/2 hrs to get to Pikeville, maybe less. From Asheville, you must cross Sam's Gap, which is a pretty good haul. When you get to the top, if you are over-heated in any way, there are several scenic byways that you can pull into. At the bottom of the mountain on the TN side is a welcome center. When you cross into Virginia, it becomes 4-lane, but you go through a small town (watch your speed here), then you get back into the limited access again for another 40 miles. Again, you will go up a mountain and there is a beautiful scenic byway at the top. This overlooks Powell Valley. Another 40 miles and you will be at the Kentucky border with another mountain to climb. Again, there is a scenic byway at the top and it overlooks Eastern Ky. From there, it's about another 30 miles to Pikeville and it is limited access highway.

I live in beautiful country and you should have NO TROUBLE whatsoever pulling a trailer this way - lots of us do it regularly as long as you have something suitable to pull that Airstream.


PM me if you have any specific questions.

Between ashville and Johnson good road , steep hills, other than that beautiful country