The Knobs continue from Virginia down to U.S. 421. Sweeping views to the east and south open up unexpectedly around turns. The waters of the South Holston lake appear on the left and down below.

Changing from country to city, you pass through the twin cities that straddle the state line: Bristol Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee. Here State Street literally takes you from one state to another!

The dual cities offer a full range of shopping and entertainment.

You drive through the southwest portion of the "Great Valley" that stretches from New York state to Georgia. Many of the first settlers in the western parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia traveled down the series of interconnected valleys between the hills and mountains. In the wide bottoms and fertile uplands, they established farms and small settlements. These gave way in the 19th and 20th centuries to cities. As you travel out of Bristol, the process reverses, the countryside becoming more open, more rural.

Piney Flats, TN

Situated on a high, long ridge, this splendid two-story log home was Tennessee's first capitol when the area was first organized as the Southwest Territory (Territory Southwest of the Ohio River). At Rocky Mount, every day is in the year 1791, the year that territorial governor William Blount stayed here. Enjoy first-person living history, in which you step right back into the past. "Come on in," Aunt Sally or one of the neighbors helping out will invite you in for a visit. Mr. Cobb or Governor Blount might show up, too. See how a real household lived on the frontier: eating, farming, cooking, sewing, entertaining, manufacturing, preparing for the winter.

Learn, too, how the living history at Rocky Mount looks to the future by preserving plant and animal species common in the colonial era but now threatened. Like a network of museums, parks, restored homes, and historic sites, Rocky Mount raises and grows plants and animals once the mainstay of our lives but now forgotten for the new varieties and new breeds. Not only does this program support nostalgia, but it also protects important genetic diversity.

Wander through the museum and see how people lived when the nation was just forming.

Enjoy the sweeping views of the surrounding rolling hills and the distant high mountains leading east into North Carolina.

Leaving U.S. 11, the newer U.S. 19E strikes out through the heart of the mountain ridge between the Holston and Watauga Rivers. Keep your eyes out for exposed seams of coal and colorful stone exposed by the highway construction. On the long hill down into Elizabethton, enjoy the sweeping views of the high mountains to the east and south.

This small city beside the Watauga is filled with interesting buildings and vistas. Along Elk avenue, the narrow-gauge "Tweestsie" - East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad - once brought iron ore in from the Cranberry Iron mine in North Carolina. The large idustral building near the river once represented American silk - rayon. Newer fibers displaced rayon and the mill fell silent. But once the passenger trains of the ET&WNC carried the mill workers in from the mountains to make the modern thread to clothe the country.

Take time to stroll across the Doe River on the covered bridge. This valley saw the very beginnings of Tennessee. Here the Watauga settlements were born. Here Fort Watauga was raised to shelter the settlers. Here the men of today's Tennessee and southwest Virginia formed an army to march over the mountains to deal with Ferguson. On your way out of town, stop by the original site of Fort Watauga, marked by a simple stone monument. Or continue past Gap Creek Road to the monument to Mary Patton. She and her husband founded a powder mill on a little stream that came to known as Powder Branch. 500 pounds of their Watauga black powder helped seal Ferguson's fate at King's Mountain.

Elizabethton, TN

Explore the recreated Fort Watauga. Watch the acclaimed film of the "Wataugans," the people who blazed the Overmountain Victory Trail. Browse the exhibits on colonial and mountain life in the museum.

Watch birds and flowers along the Watauga River. Or take the fitness trail equipped with exercise stations to help start you getting fit.

Join in periodic craft lessons exhibits. See occasional rendezvous and encampments by colonial- and Revolutionary-era reenactors.

In the summer, enjoy the unique story of the "Wataugans," presented weekends outdoors in the amphitheater. Here is the true story of the fiery romance of Bonnie Kate Shelly and Nolichucky Jack Sevier. Meet the historic characters who carved the glory along the Overmountain Victory Trail: empire-building John Carter, tragic Nancy Ward, fierce Dragging Canoe, uncompromising Reverend Samuel Doak, determined Isaac Shelby.

Best of all, look around you at the land beside the river. Imagine how it must have looked on the morning of September 26, 1780. More than a thousand men and their families with their horses and some wagons covered the bottom between river and fort. Probably some cattle grazed, the intended food supply for the army. Here is where it all began, here was an army in its shiniest best. From here marched what their neighbors would have called ordinary men. Their foes called them backwoods, mongrels, backwater people.

Retrace the exact steps of the Overmountain men on their first day's march from Sycamore Shoals up through the twisting valley of Gap Creek. On your right, watch for the Gap Creek Monument. This small obelisk is proof of the continued link between past and future. Originally erected by students at the now torn down school from stones gathered from the creek, the monument was removed when the road was widened. Students and parents raised a storm that swept the community. The present structure was build by the state as a replacement. But these very stones might have felt the feet of the passing Patriot army.

East of Elizabethton, the highway climbs up into the high mountains, twisting and turning to make its way. As you climb, watch for the Doe River that rises on Roan Mountain and grows as it plunges down the mountain.

For a special treat, take the old railroad grade that runs parallel to the modern highway. It's very narrow, for this was the narrow-gauge East Tennessee & Western North Carolina, know popularly as "Tweetsie" or the "Mountain Stemwinder." Near the midpoint, you pass through a cut so deep and narrow, the air stays cool in the hottest summer and you may have to bend your car! In the town of Roan Mountain, the highway passes right over the old right-of-way. Next to the highway are store fronts that saw the passing of trains!

You approach North Carolina up State Line Hill. The little narrow-gauge engines needed all their muscle to make it into Carolina. In the last days of the railroad, a fan riding the engine asked the engineer to blow the whistle as they rolled along. "Can't," the engineer said, "Climbing the hill."

Here is a treat in the high country. Stop by the visitor's center, including the mill that once stood on the site. Take the Peg Leg Trail to the iron mine. Follow the wildflower trail laid out by Tom Gray, one of the founders of the movement to preserve the Overmountain Victory Trail. Explore the mountainsides, looking for wild flowers, animals, and the distinctive flora of the high Unaka Mountains.

Enjoy tennis.

Unfortunately, look at one important site only as you enter or leave the park. Shelving Rock is on a narrow, dangerous curve. Because of the traffic and short sightlines, visits to or stopping at Shelving Rock are not safe. The area under the rock has been filled in over the years, so it looks too low and small today. This was the first night's camping spot. The army spread out along the banks of Heaton Creek. Their powder was stored under Shelving Rock out of the rain that fell.

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