Friday June 1st – Tuesday, June 5th
Fall Creek Falls, Spencer, Tennessee
This beautiful state park sprawls
across 26,000 acres on the Cumberland Plateau in south central Tennessee. There
are numerous waterfalls within the rugged gorges of the park. Fall Creek Falls,
at 256 feet, is one of the highest waterfalls in the eastern US. Besides forested
campgrounds, there is a lodge, inn and conference center, cabins, restaurant, swimming
pool and amphitheater. There are over 15 miles of mountain biking trails and 56
miles of hiking trails.
We had a great campsite in the
forested campground. We were happy to have great weather; however, it was warm.
We took the dogs hiking and visited the main attraction, Fall Creek Falls. There
were a lot of locals at the park to witness the unusually powerful falls. Later
we hiked the trail to Piney Creek Falls, crossing one of the suspension bridges
to get to the other side of the gorge. All of the falls were still raging due
to the recent rainfall. Our next hike was to Cane Creek Falls, which we were
able to view from an overlook. The next day, we hiked the Woodland Trail, which
meandered through the forest and crossed over the brink of Cane Creek Cascades on
a suspension bridge. This bridge was much longer and wobblier. Luca
became so freaked out that Kurt had to carry him across the bridge. I have to
admit, it was kind of scary crossing for me with Kody on a leash (who was
unaffected at all). After crossing the bridge, we were able to hike down to the
base of Cane Creek Cascade Falls. This hike also returned to the Fall Creek
Falls Overlook,
There were some mountain biking
trails within the park. We drove to one trailhead the first day to check out
the conditions. As we expected, the trails were wet and not maintained. There
were some downed trees, but were easy enough to haul the bikes over. So after
about a mile, we turned around and thought we would try the other biking trail.
Kurt took his bike the next day to check out the other mountain biking trail
and it was in worse condition. No riding here!
So the next day we thought we
would ride the paved trail that followed along the north side of the lake. We
started off on this trail, only to find major downed trees blocking the
pavement and no way to get around it. It’s a shame that this park was not active
in cleaning up the trails. It would have been a beautiful ride.
The last day there we decided to
try the Cable Trail, which was described as a rugged hike down to the base of
Fall Creek Falls. The beginning of the hike was as expected, but once we got to
the “cable” we discovered this was a 25 foot cable over huge, rugged rocks,
requiring the hiker to hold onto the cable to get to the bottom. Wow, neither
of us wanted to “repel” downward on this hike. So we headed back to camp.
Overall, we enjoyed this park, the
hiking and the beautiful falls. We were ready to move northward to Kentucky and
revisit the “Land Between the Lakes”.
Wednesday, June 6th – Sunday, June 10th
Land Between the Lakes, National Recreation Area, Grand Rivers, Kentucky
We decided to stay at this federal
recreation area, which we visited last October on our way back to Florida
(where we stayed during the remnants of Irma). We enjoyed this place since
there was so much to do. There were hiking and mountain biking trails, the lakes,
and various attractions. These include an Elk & Bison Prairie drive-through,
a planetarium, historical “Homeplace Working Farm”, multiple beaches and picnic
areas.
This was a convenient stop-over
where we could relax and have some fun. We were able to ride the mountain bike
trails and hang out at the lake. It did rain a couple of days and was very hot
most days. We thought we were escaping the heat of Florida, but so far it’s
been almost as hot, humid and rainy as back at home. Next trip northward, we
will move quicker toward the northern states. Hopefully, that will make a
difference in getting to cooler climates!
Next on the agenda is Indiana at
a great state park. Looking forward to some cooler weather and great mountain
biking trails.
