States: Tennessee
Start near: Chattanooga (starts here) · Memphis (starts here) · Huntsville (about 1 h 55 min to Chattanooga)
Southern Tennessee the long way
Highway 64: Shiloh to Lookout Mountain is a ~340-mile back-roads route from Memphis to Chattanooga on US 64 and TN 55, driven in 2–3 days, that stays off I-40 / I-24 through the Upper South.
The southern tier of Tennessee, where I-40 never goes: Shiloh's terrible quiet, slugburgers across the Mississippi line, the whiskey hollow that made Jack Daniel (and the enslaved man who taught him), a Victorian Chautauqua on the mountain — and the grand finale, Lookout Mountain's holy trinity of American roadside attractions. See Rock City. You've read the barns; now obey them.
📍 Tennessee Civil War Trails markers and the See Rock City barns (Clark Byers painted ~900 of them, 1935–69) are the route's twin signage traditions.
Cotton flats and courthouse squares out to Pittsburg Landing, where America learned in April 1862 what the war would really cost — with the Corinth spur for history and deep-fried heresy.
April 6–7, 1862: 23,746 casualties — more than all of America's previous wars combined. The Bloody Pond, the Hornet's Nest, and Indian mounds 800 years older watching the river. Come at opening; the fog does the interpreting.
The rail junction both armies bled for (the interpretive center is superb). Then: a slugburger — Depression-stretched, deep-fried, gloriously humble — at Borroum's Drug Store (Mississippi's oldest, 1865) or the White Trolley.
Home of the stick-swinging sheriff who inspired Walking Tall (1973) — the home museum keeps the legend, the cars and the complicated truth.
Crockett's Lawrenceburg, Pulaski's reckoning, the Lynchburg hollow (dry county, famous whiskey), and Sewanee's sandstone Oxford on the mountain.
David Crockett ran gristmills here before politics and the Alamo; statue on the square, replica mills in the state park, 'be always sure you're right — then go ahead' energy throughout.
The Klan was founded in a law office here in 1865 — and the town has spent generations refusing to let that define it: the commemorative plaque was famously unbolted and remounted facing the wall. A sober, honest stop.
The cave spring, the rickyard — and the overdue centering of Nearest Green, the enslaved distiller who taught Jack the craft (his descendants' Uncle Nearest brand now thrives nearby). Moore County is still dry; samples only. Book Miss Mary Bobo's boarding-house table.
The University of the South's sandstone gothic in 13,000 mountain acres — students in gowns, views forever. Next door, the 1882 Monteagle Assembly still runs its Victorian Chautauqua summers.
Down the plateau to Chattanooga: Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Incline, Point Park's Battle Above the Clouds — and a Moon Pie for the road.
Rock City (fairyland caverns, seven states, the gnomes), Ruby Falls (a 145-ft waterfall 26 stories underground, found in 1928), and the Incline's 72.7% grade. Garnet Carter invented mini-golf up here too. The roadside-attraction Holy Land.
The 'Battle Above the Clouds' from Lookout's brow, and Chickamauga just south — the war's second-bloodiest field, preserved in 1890 as America's first national military park.
Born here in 1917 when a miner asked for a snack 'as big as the moon.' RC Cola pairing optional but constitutionally protected.
Highway 64: Shiloh to Lookout Mountain is about 340 miles and takes 2–3 days at a back-roads pace.
It runs from Memphis to Chattanooga.
It follows US 64 and TN 55.
It avoids I-40 / I-24, using US 64 and TN 55 instead.
10 stops are mapped, including Shiloh National Military Park, Corinth & the Slugburger (spur), Buford Pusser Museum, Crockett's Lawrenceburg and Pulaski's Reckoning.
The Whole Hog (28 days) and The Long Way to the Opry (21 days).
The Whole Hog (28 days) · The Long Way to the Opry (21 days)
Connects with: US 41: Dixie Highway & the Atlanta Campaign · The Overhill Country · US 11: The Valley South
More in the Upper South: The Valley Pike · Bull Run to the Bloody Angle · The Crooked Road · Blue Ridge Parkway & the Smokies · Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers · The Constitution Route & 231 · The Overhill Country · Gold, Clay & Longleaf · US 11: The Valley Road South · Skyline Drive & the Parkway · Lee's Retreat · The Booth Escape Route · US 23: The Country Music Highway · US 52: The Mine Wars Road · The Midland Trail · The Quiet Zone · The Wilderness Road · Moonbows & the Gorge · US 60: The Mutton Line · US 70: Broadway of America · The Middle Tennessee Pike · US 127: The Plateau & the Sale · US 11E: The Great Valley Road · US 64: The Waterfall Byway · SC 11: The Cherokee Foothills · The Old Ninety Six District · Old Salem to Mayberry · US 58: The Last Capital Road · The Dragon & the Skyway · US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga