Morton Overlook, at about 4,837 feet, looks northwest down the West Prong valley that Newfound Gap Road follows toward Gatlinburg. It is named for Ben Morton, a Knoxville mayor and auto club booster who pushed for the road, and the park's wayside here has been frank that economic boosters, more than conservationists, drove the campaign for the park. Road cuts near Newfound Gap show orange, rust-stained Anakeesta rock, whose iron sulfides turn runoff acidic. The spruce-fir forest begins near the upper tunnel, just below the overlook. The pullout has parking and a wide view down the valley, and visitors who stop hear Boone's tale of the American chestnut and the bears of 1946.
Morton Overlook, just ahead. Watch for the overlook sign, then pull in and stay a minute. Boone has a tale about the autumn the bears walked away. If you shut the car off, tap play before you walk away, and stay close till he starts. Then he'll come along on your phone. When you pull out, keep going the way you were headed, toward Cherokee if you came from Gatlinburg, toward Gatlinburg if you came from Cherokee. The road cuts near Newfound Gap show orange, rust-colored rock. That's acid rock, the Anakeesta Formation, laced with iron sulfides that rust when they meet the air. It's the same chemistry that poisoned a creek on the North Carolina side. The name up here belongs to Ben Morton, a Knoxville mayor and auto club man who pushed hard to get this road built. The park's own wayside here has been candid about it. It says the move to create the park was led more by economic boosters than conservationists, and the auto clubs wanted good roads through good scenery. Four thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven feet up, that valley falling away to the northwest is the West Prong, the valley this road threads between here and Gatlinburg.
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0