I've gone on a second hike with Girls Who Hike Tennessee, this time to Denny Cove Falls at South Cumberland State Park. I always forget how hard hiking South Cumberland is on your ankles since most of the hike is walking over uneven rock beds. It was a great day for a hike and Denny Cove Falls is bigger than I expected. There is not much of an area to stand around the falls so it got very crowded quickly when another large group showed up. The hike is excellent though with good views and you can see rock climbers while headed to the falls.
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Norris Dam State Park in Rocky Top, TN is a CCC state park. We stayed in one of the historic CCC cabins for President's weekend and had a great time at the park. The dam itself was made in the 30s on the Clinch River and we took a hike on Songbird Trail that walks by the river. The park has an east and west side divided by the river with the older area on the east. It was a quiet camp ground with trails that wandered around the lake dam. There is also a museum owned by the park. Lenoir Museum is a smaller version of the Museum of Appalachia (which is five minutes down the road) and chronicles the life of people living in the mountains of east Tennessee. The Museum of Appalachia is also worth a visit while you are there. The museum is enormous with special care being made to take down the stories associated with the countless items that are on display.
Outside of Columbia, Stillhouse Hollow Falls is a state natural area with a very pretty waterfall. The hike is not much more than a mile, but it is rather steep on the way back. There is an overlook of the falls, then a hike to the bottom of the falls itself. We had the falls to ourselves for a little while, and while the site is fairly well traveled, you will probably be able to see the falls without much interruption.
Owl Hill Sanctuary just outside of Franklin is a lovely place for a hike. The sanctuary offers all sorts of extra programs including a naturalist program. I took the signs and tracks class that is taught by employees of the sanctuary and volunteers. We took a walk looking for chewed on nuts, tracks, tunnels in the grass and methods to distinguish what types of animals have through. Owl Hill is a great place that is making a strong effort to get people out in nature to learn.
It was a thoroughly rainy day at Long Hunter, but I hiked the 4 miles of the Day Loop. Looping around the peninsula into Percy Priest Lake, the hike isn't incredibly strenuous and has one overlook of the lake that isn't spectacular, but does allow for a good picture across the lake. There is a lot of bird life. I saw pelicans, seagulls and herons.
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AuthorA librarian doing the travel. Archives
May 2024
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