It’s not an exaggeration that we are ANXIOUS to “get on the road again” but we always seem to reflect on past adventures as we prepare for new ones.
Mike has been going through his photographs, cataloging them and such for our website through Fine Art America and these popped up as our all time favorites from the Volunteer State, Tennessee, USA.
Enjoy……..
Ranger Creek Falls
The hike to the Ranger Falls is accessed through South Cumberland State Park at the Stone Door area. The hike to this refreshing rest stop would be about a 10-mile (strenuous) hike if you return on the Big Creek Rim Trail and taking the 0.4 mile spur trail to the falls. You will see the spur trail 2-miles after you pass through the Stone Door. What makes this fall interesting is the water disappears after hitting the ground. It travels underground so when you approach the falls, you do not see any water until you are at the falls.
Fall Creek Falls State Park
Fall Creek Falls State Park is one of Tennessee’s largest and most visited state parks. The park encompasses more than 29,800 acres sprawled across the eastern top of the rugged Cumberland Plateau. Laced with cascades, gorges, waterfalls, streams and lush stands of virgin hardwood timber, the park beckons those who enjoy nature at her finest. The focal point of the park is Fall Creek Falls. At 256 feet it is one of the highest waterfalls in the eastern United States and is accessed from the top by a short easy walk on pavement. To get to the bottom of the falls is a bit more adventurous (aka strenuous for some) by following a well traveled 0.8 mile path over some rock scrambles.
From inside the park you will also find Piney Falls, Cane Creek Falls, and Cane Creek Cascades, but Fall Creek Falls is the most impressive.
Snoopers Rock
Located near Chattanooga in Prentice Cooper State Forest, the Snoopers Rock lookout will treat you to one of the best views of the Tennessee River Gorge.
We started our day at dawn by watching the sun come up over the Tennessee River Gorge and then taking the 6-mile trail along a route following the natural terrain features from Indian Rockhouse to Snooper’s Rock with a couple of small water crossings and numerous rock formations. This is a peaceful walk in the woods with a few short climbs.
Lover’s Leap
Best viewed from inside Rock City via a paved easy trail that is stroller and wheelchair accessible, making this waterfall enjoyable by all.
140′ high Lover’s Leap gets its name from the Cherokee legend of two young lovers, a brave named Sautee and a beautiful maiden named Nacoochee, from two feuding tribes. According to the legend, Sautee was captured and thrown from the top of Lover’s Leap. Nacoochee, distraught from the loss, jumped to her own death.
Walnut Street Bridge
The Walnut Street Bridge is one of Chattanooga’s most beloved public places. Built in 1890, the bridge has stood the test of time, a symbol and connection to some of Chattanooga’s most proud and more troublesome times. Once the bridge was closed to cars in the late 1970s, it remained closed and forgotten for nearly a decade until a group of private citizens raised over $10 million for its renovation and reopening as a lateral park that connected Chattanooga’s south and northside.
Big South Fork National River Area
Encompassing 125,000 acres of the Cumberland Plateau, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area protects the free-flowing Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. The area boasts miles of scenic gorges and sandstone bluffs, is rich with natural and historic features and has been developed to provide visitors with a wide range of outdoor recreational activities.
Ever fascinated by historical objects, one of our hikes was the John Litton Farm Loop. The trail is named for John Litton who settled in the area around 1900 and his dwelling and outbuildings are still standing.
The hike is an easy 6.2 mile loop taking you through beautiful countryside, small waterfalls and some rock formations along the way.
Obed National Wild and Scenic River Area
The Obed Wild and Scenic River looks much the same today as it did when the first white settlers strolled its banks in the late 1700s. Today, the Obed stretches along the Cumberland Plateau and offers visitors a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.
The park has been designated as an International Dark Sky Association (IDA) International Dark Sky Park, only the second National Park Service unit east of Colorado to earn this designation and the 17th national park in the United States to do so.
Starry night skies are an important part of the special places the National Park Service protects. Our national parks hold some of the last remaining harbors of darkness and provide amazing opportunities to experience this critical resource. Obed Wild & Scenic River is one of these special places with a truly dark night sky. Among Obed’s interpretive themes is a primary goal to reconnect life and nature by discussing the value of quiet, solitude, and even darkness in the noisy, frenetic, and developed world of the 21st century.
We attended a Ranger led Dark Sky event to learn the importance of the designation, view cosmic sights with ginormous telescopes and take photography lessons to capture the beauty through the lens.
This picture below is the Nemo Bridge within the park boundaries.
Lake Ocoee Sunset
This beautiful sunset was captured right off the side of the Ocoee Scenic Byway where the Ocoee River flows into 1,930-acre Parksville Lake [aka Ocoee Lake].
Blue Heron Mining Community
Blue Heron, also known as Mine 18, is an abandoned coal mining town and was a part of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company’s past operation. The Blue Heron mines operated from 1937, until December, 1962, when operations were no longer profitable. During that time, hundreds of people lived and worked in this isolated community on the banks of the Big South Fork River.
When the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company abandoned Blue Heron in 1962, the buildings were either removed or lapsed into decay. As a result, there were no original buildings standing when the community was “re-created” in the 1980s. Built as an outdoor museum the new structures are open, metal shells of buildings, referred to as “ghost structures” built on the approximate site of the original buildings and were made as close to the original size and orientation as possible.
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
Brushy Mountain was the last place you wanted to find yourself – right in the middle of Tennessee’s first maximum-security prison holding the state’s most violent murderers, robbers and rapists for over a century. With some sentences of 200 years or more, most of the men who walked through its gates would never be walking out.
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary was a large maximum-security prison located in Petros, TN. It was opened in 1896 and operated until 2009. Brushy Mountain has a very unique history, but it is perhaps best known as being the prison which housed James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr.
Brushy Mountain reopened as a tourist attraction in 2018, which includes guided tours of the prison, a restaurant, gift shop, event venue, and a distillery.
Dream Big, Travel Far, Live Well ……
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