The long blue reservoir below the NC descent — a Cheoah River lake ringed by national forest, near the Skyway's eastern foot.
As you come down the North Carolina side toward Robbinsville, watch through the trees for a long finger of blue water down in the valley — that's Lake Santeetlah, and it's a pretty piece of the puzzle down here at the mountain's foot. It's a reservoir, built by damming the Cheoah River back in the nineteen-twenties for hydroelectric power, and it's ringed almost entirely by national forest, so its shoreline stayed wild where most lakes get walled with houses.
'Santeetlah' is a Cherokee word, and you'll have noticed by now how many of the names up here still are — Cherohala, Nantahala, Santeetlah, Cheoah, Junaluska. That's not an accident, and it's not just decoration. It's the map telling you the truth: that whatever the state lines and the forest signs say today, this is Cherokee country, named by Cherokee people, and the names outlasted almost everything else that was done here.
Down along that lake and the valleys around Robbinsville is where you'll find the living end of that story — the Snowbird community, Cherokee families still here on a piece of their homeland. Boone's got their tale. For now, enjoy that blue water winking through the trees as you roll down toward town.
Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0
