Legendary Drives: Cumberland Gap Scenic Parkway Appalachia

The Cumberland Gap provided one of a few natural pathways through the Appalachian Mountains, key to animal migration and the early movement of Indigenous tribes followed by settlers. Cumberland Gap Scenic Parkway traverses Appalachian mountains and valleys and the critical gap point—now via tunnel since 1996.

A Virginia physician and explorer, Thomas Walker, brought the Cumberland Gap to the attention of settlers. But its most famous association: Daniel Boone. His crew marked the Cumberland Gap trail in 1775, and expanded it for wagons as the Wilderness Road, or “the Gateway to the West,” in the 1790s.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park crosses three states: Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. Trails thread through 23,000 acres with waterfalls and mountain views to the Gap Cave depths.

Wilderness Road Campground in Ewing, Virginia, is three miles from the park’s visitor center with 160 sites tucked into the woods.