(CNN) -- It's the highway that vanquished much of fabled Route 66 to the history books -- a ribbon on concrete reviled in some quarters for moving travelers across the country too fast to see it.

Interstate 40 begins near Los Angeles and roams eastward through Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma. The eastern end of Interstate 40 runs the length of Tennessee from Memphis to Knoxville and across the southern Appalachian Mountains, then over North Carolina's piedmont region to end a few miles shy of the Atlantic Ocean near Wilmington.

That is, if the eastern end did not have a bit of a problem. A massive rock slide has blocked the road in the middle of one of its most beautiful, and crucial, stretches -- just inside the western state line of North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains.

A 250-foot swath of highway languishes under the rubble. Work crews have been trying to stabilize the 500-foot slope that gave way on July 1; on August 20, they stepped up efforts and began working around the clock. With the blockage just three tenths of a mile from the state line at Big Creek, I-40 is closed 20 miles east toward Asheville, North Carolina and 12 miles west toward Knoxville, Tennessee.

Following the Pigeon River across the mountains through national forest lands just north of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I-40 uses two tunnels to keep the roadway as level as a mountain highway can be. Now, travelers are back on winding, steep, sometimes two-lane roads to reach destinations on the other side of the southern Appalachians.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is making no promises about when the highway will reopen -- "as soon as it is safe," said spokeswoman Hannah Jernigan -- but officials are hoping to open one lane each way by Labor Day.

North Carolina DOT is routing travelers in the Asheville area to I-240, onto U.S. 23 North to cross the mountains to Johnson City, Tennessee. From there, take I-81 South to I-40. Drivers coming from further east (the piedmont and eastern North Carolina) are urged to exit at Statesville onto I-77, travel north to Wytheville, Virginia and then south on I-81 into Tennessee.

Travelers from Tennessee are detoured onto I-81 North to Johnson City, to U.S. 23 South, to I-240 and back to I-40 in Asheville. I-40 is accessible as far as Exit 20 at Cove Creek, North Carolina, and Exit 432B at Newport, Tennessee.

Those are just the main routes. There's a host of alternate ways over the southern mountains (an east Tennessee or western North Carolina native could take you over old logging roads, but without a four-wheel drive, that could be a dangerous drive). Since the fast convenience of I-40 is out of the question anyway, travelers can choose their delay.

U.S. 64 criss-crosses I-40 through the middle of North Carolina, finally parting for good at Morganton. After rolling south for 30 miles, 64 turns west and begins a scenic run across the southwestern portion of the state.

On the way, the highway passes popular tourist stops Lake Lure and Chimney Rock, a monolith (accessible by a 258-foot elevator or hiking trails) towering over a 10 mile gorge of the Rocky Broad River.

Beyond I-26 (which connects Asheville with Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina), 64 passes spectacular falls and mountain-nestled lakes, and the towns Cashiers and Highlands on its way to Tennessee, crossing the border a couple of miles north of Georgia. The highway joins I-75 at Cleveland, Tennessee (about 30 miles north of Chattanooga). I-75 rejoins I-40 about 60 miles further north near Knoxville.

Also on the southern route -- U.S. 23 South exits from I-40 west of Asheville, and joins 64 at Franklin. And U.S. 19 departs the interstate at about the same point, but separates and crosses 64 further west at Murphy. The Nantahala National Forest and the Nantahala River Gorge lie along the way, and a turn onto North Carolina 28 skirts the southern Smokies to Fontana Lake.

One of the most popular routes is, of course, through the center of the Great Smoky Mountains. U.S. 441 is the highway that cuts through the heart of the park, crossing the North Carolina-Tennessee state line at Newfound Gap. Reach 441 via U.S. 19 South from Asheville, or from Knoxville on the west side of the Smokies.

Already one of the most popular national parks in the country, the Smokies hit a record 1.7 million visitors last month, due in part to rerouted traffic. But fair warning -- it's slow going over two-lane 441 through the park. Cherokee, North Carolina (home of the Eastern band of the Cherokee tribe) and Gatlinburg, Tennessee are the gateways to the Smokies, the entry points on the only highway through the park.

Once inside, picnic areas, scenic views and trails are there for the taking in one of the country's most heavily forested parks. From Newfound Gap, a 5-mile road follows the state line to Clingman's Dome, Tennessee's highest mountain, where a short path to an observation tower offers views on both sides of the ridge.

On the Tennessee side, a winding road begins just inside the park boundaries and follows the Little Pigeon River into the heart of the park to Cades Cove, one of the last areas abandoned by settlers after Tennessee and North Carolina handed the land to the federal government in 1934. An 11-mile loop road traverses the lush cove through former farmland. Trails lead to waterfalls and other historic sites.

North of the Smokies, the roads run deeper into Appalachia. U.S. 19 splits with U.S. 23 to cross into Tennessee north of Asheville, although it winds first through Western North Carolina's mountains toward its ski areas. I-19 East arrives in Tennessee near Roan Mountain, which boasts some of the south's best cross-country ski trails when snow covers its gentle hiking trails.

Tennessee 143 and North Carolina 80 actually cross the mountain at Roan Mountain State Park, while 19 goes on to Elizabethton, nine miles east of Johnson City (U.S. 321 covers the distance). Almost in the heart of Elizabethton, Hattie Avenue crosses the Doe River on one of Tennessee's few remaining covered bridges, built in 1882.

Another route further north, U.S. 321 crosses the state line from Boone and Blowing Rock in North Carolina, winding by Watauga Lake on the Tennessee side as it runs to Elizabethton and Johnson City. U.S. 321 can be accessed in North Carolina from Hickory on I-40 or I-77 via U.S. 421 West. U.S. 421 actually splits from 321 just past Boone and runs to Bristol, a town split down the middle by the Tennessee-Virginia border. I-81, fresh from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, also passes through Bristol.

On either side of the Tennessee-North Carolina border, there's no shortage of places to go, people and things to see. In North Carolina, the southern end of Blue Ridge Parkway passes through Linville Gorge ("the Grand Canyon of North Carolina"), past Grandfather Mountain and its "mile-high swinging bridge," and within spitting distance of North Carolina's highest peak, Mount Mitchell. In Tennessee, the Foothills Parkway skirts the edge of the Smokies.

A stop in Asheville wouldn't hurt a soul -- it is the childhood hometown of author Thomas Wolfe ("Look Homeward, Angel") and George Vanderbilt's magnificent Biltmore Estate is here. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Sandburg lived the last 22 years of his life on a farm in Flat Rock, North Carolina, about 26 miles south of Asheville just off I-26.

In Tennessee, Greeneville, 30 miles southwest of Johnson City on U.S. 11 East and just off I-81, houses the tailor shop, two homes and gravesite of 17th President Andrew Johnson. And Limestone, near Greeneville, is the birthplace of frontier hero Davy Crockett.

Life is short, and the detours are long. Make the most of it.

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Weather: Gatlinburg, Tennessee; Asheville, North Carolina City Guides and Maps: Tennessee; North Carolina

Related stories:

• Destinations: Highlands, North Carolina - April 23, 1997
• Destinations: Southeastern Rivers - May 16, 1997
  • Racing through Appalachia at Nantahala speed

Related sites:

• North Carolina Department of Transportation
  • Interstate 40 Rock Slide
• Tennessee Department of Transportation
  • Detour map
• I-40 Connections
• Chimney Rock Park
• ParkNet - National Park Service online
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  • Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
  • Carl Sandburg Home National History Site
• The American West: Davy Crockett
• NCNatural Digest
  • Blue Ridge Parkway guide
  • Linville Gorge

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