The recent Winter weather has been troublesome for drivers in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area. Not only have roads been slick because of the ice, but one of our most traveled roadways has experienced it’s third rockslide in 30 days.

“The Spur” is the road that travels between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and serves as the route most people take to get between the two cities. In January The Spur had a couple of rockslides which caused officials to close part of the Southbound lanes and detour them. The detour took drivers into the Northbound lanes which were split to serve as a two way road, and then dumped drivers back onto the Southbound lanes once they cleared the slides. It was speculated that it would take crews over a month to make the closed portion of the Southbound lanes “driveable” again.

However, there was another rockslide in the Southbound lanes of The Spur in the section of the Southbound road that was still open despite the rockslide in January. The rockslide caused officials to stop all traffic coming through The Spur and left many wondering if more shouldn’t be done to make sure the road is safe for travelers.

We hope that Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge visitors will make wise decisions when traveling. If you are coming into Gatlinburg from Pigeon Forge you may want to consider an alternate route until the detour has been put up and The Spur is safe.

Here’s an alternate route. It’s definitely not as quick as taking The Spur but it will get you into Gatlinburg:

Coming from Sevierville traveling in Pigeon Forge take a left at traffic light #8. Go to the 1st light and take a right (this road is Upper Middle Creek.) Drive about 3 miles and turn right on Boogertown Road. Drive until Boogertown dead ends and turn right onto Glades Road. Go all the way down to the end of this road. The road you will come to will be 321. If you want to go to downtown Gatlinburg you’ll take a right and drive all the way down to the end which will be 441 (the road that leads to downtown Gatlinburg.)