Tail of the Dragon Isn't Overrated. It Just Isn't the Same
Well. I’m sure that at least half of the driving enthusiasts in our fine union instantly scoffed at my headline. “How could the Tail be overrated? It’s the best driving road in the country.” To which the other half, primarily located in Los Angeles, will scoff back and say, “It is absolutely overrated.”
But despite the nature of the question I’m asking, I’m not really debating whether Tail is a great driving road or not. What I’m really wondering is if, like Angeles Crest Highway, the Tail is a victim of its own success.
When Firestone invited me to drive the facelifted Honda Civic Si on its excellent Firehawk Indy 500 tires, I seized the opportunity because of what was on the docket: A drive through the East Coast’s finest roads, including the Tail of the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway.
To be frank, I’ve bought and driven on half a dozen sets of Indy 500 tires. They're grippy, love blended input, and are relatively cheap. I mostly just wanted to know what the big deal was with the Tail.
I’m embarrassed to say that mountain roads are officially a hobby of mine. My native Los Angeles has some of the best roads in the country. I fiercely love the Angeles National Forest, the Angeles Crest Highway, the Santa Monica mountains, the Malibu canyons, and even the lesser-known roads in the Sierra Pelona mountains.
Los Angeles is not starved for choice; we easily have two dozen great driving roads in a 40-mile radius. It creates a mature and somewhat saturated driving culture, one that has recently become a subject of debate.
Before we get to Tail, though, we need to discuss Angeles Crest. Driving culture in Los Angeles centers around the Angeles National Forest, which includes Crest but also has several other roads. Crest leads to the Angeles Forest Highway, and two tangential roads called Big Tujunga and Upper Big Tujunga. Further east, Azusa Canyon Road and Glendora Mountain Road don’t connect to Crest, but have unbelievably strong subcultures.
You could argue that Malibu is as significant, but the bald truth is that uninterrupted, pure driving in LA only happens in the forest—much like Tail. The isolation that being a national forest brings allows for the kind of driving enthusiasts want to do, as opposed to Malibu, which is scattered with residential. But here's the thing: Both Tail and Crest have achieved enough fame that it’s become a problem.
Both cultures have spawned social media subcultures that promote the antisocial kind of driving. Frankly, it’s posting the stuff we’d all normally keep off the internet, for fear of prosecution. Instead, it drives unbelievable views and growth for dozens of accounts.
Both Tail and Crest have achieved enough fame that it’s become a problem.
Entire Instagram pages are dedicated to crashes and incidents on either road, mostly Crest. It feels as though major incidents happen multiple times a week, and it’s making folks who love driving backroads look bad. Friends who would normally never fret over a Crest drive are suddenly scared of the road and ask me personally to stop driving it.
The perception of danger, thanks largely to social media, is more powerful than ever. Yet, drivers keep crashing. I remember a time (just ten years ago) when Crest and the Tail were relatively unknown. Amongst the nerds and oddballs, sure, both have always been famous. But the popular adoption of driving your cars as being cool, versus sitting at a parking lot cars and coffee, has turned these faraway roads into genuine international destinations.
Driving Tail only proved the point. It is a lovely driving road, an exquisitely three-dimensional, compounding ribbon of tarmac that serves stunning natural beauty and tight, technical driving. It was well-suited to the Civic Si, with its short gear ratios and easy front-wheel drive handling. Its combination of smooth pavement and heavily cambered switchbacks is unique amongst the roads I’ve driven, making for one of my more memorable drives.
If Angeles Crest is totemically West, then Tail is totemically East. The deep, lush, green forest gives the road an intimacy, almost a humility, compared to the grandeur and vistas of Crest. Sometimes, the trees give way and offer a view that is even more stunning—Hints of the Great Smoky Mountains. But just hints. It wasn’t until the route took us onto the Cherohola Skyway that the views became permanently stunning.
This is what driving culture is about. Merging meditative beauty with metronomic, peaceful driving. It’s easy to get lost in the flow of either the Tail or the Cherohala Skyway, and that’s the mark of an exceptional driving road. Despite all the bullshit, the crashes, and the social media posts, the escape still exists. It isn’t all doom and gloom. Driving is still fun.
So, is the Tail of the Dragon overrated? No, it isn’t. However, perhaps driving culture in general needs to take a closer look at itself and realign with its original goal—remember that it isn’t all about followers and likes. It’s escape. And any road that provides escape is damn good in my book.
