The Great Smokey Mountains tourist railroad runs on a former Southern Railway branchline just south of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park that straddles the Tennessee - North Carolina state line (which, of course, follows the summit of the Appalachians). The line's eastern end is at Dillsboro, at the current end of a Norfolk Southern branch west from Asheville. Today's GSMR was built as the continuation of that line, westward into the mountains.
From Dillsboro, the line heads curvily north-northwest past Barkers creek, turning northeast and making a counter-clockwise horseshoe west to Wilmot, then turning north and curvily north-northwest past Whittier to Els, where a line (the Appalachian Railroad) northeast to Ravensford once headed away and the GSMR turns curvily west-southwest, down a river valley (of a west-flowing river) past Governors Island and Bryson City, where a branch once continued curvily west down the river to Fontana, and turns away from the river through a tunnel, and then climbs very curvily over a mountain spur and down to a lake created by a dam on the lower part of the same river. Part of the railroad was built by convict labor. Nineteen convicts drowned while building a bridge over the river right next to the tunnel, now said to be haunted by the ghosts of the convicts (who are buried in the hill above it).
The scenery is an interesting mix of rivers and forests, including an area where former Southern Railroad President D.W. ("Bill") Brosnan used to have a summer residence, near a location where the line crosses a 700 ft. long bridge over Fontana Lake (that dammed-up river valley), and turns curvily southwest past Almond, Wesser, Talc Mountain and Hewitt to Nantahala, located in the Nantahala Gorge (with the river to the southeast of the line), where there are refreshment and souvenir stands. The line continues curvily southwest, past Junction, where the Graham County railroad once trailed in off the mountains to the northwest, Topton, and Rhodo, to Andrews, where the Tennessee & North Carolina railroad once left on the south side to climb the mountain to Hayesville, while the Southern branch once continued west and then southwest to Murphy, where it made an end-on junction with an erstwhile L&N branch off the Hook & Eye line.