The Mother of All Waterfalls (Eastern Division)

It was a lovely time at Fall Creek Falls State Park. We actually ate out in a restaurant. The park has an inn that you can stay in, overlooking the Caney River. It seemed more like a large hotel and it had an actual restaurant there. We decided that the lunch buffet was the way to go. The only problem was that they were going to shut down the buffet about fifteen minutes after we arrived. I don't think I've ever done a buffet quite this way. We loaded up a salad plate, we loaded up a dinner plate with all we could fit on it, we loaded up a dessert plate and brought it all back to the table. There was no room on the table for anything else. When you put all those plates together, it looked like a rather obscene amount of food. It was a different perspective from when you just get one plate at a time and you don't quite realize how much you are actually eating.

Kathy, Miko and I took off on a what we thought was a two mile hike. As is my penchant, we somehow got a little turned around and it ended up being twice as long of a hike. The good thing, though, is that we got to see five out of the six waterfalls in the park. Score!!!

Waterfall #1

There is a swinging bridge above Waterfall #1.  Miko can't handle swinging bridges so we couldn't cross over. 

That was quite all right by me, swinging bridges aren't my thing either - Thank you Miko

Waterfall #2

Waterfall #2 and #3 - I find I like wide, fat waterfalls better than tall skinny ones.  

The Grand Finale - Waterfalls #4 and 5

This waterfall is 256 feet tall and is the highest free-fall waterfall east of the Mississippi River. 

It is about 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls

Ok - unless I get really lucky, I think I'm done with waterfalls on this particular trip.

Rock Island State Park

I meant to stay at Kathy's for just a couple of days, but then Kathy had all that chocolate and I just really felt I had to help her out. So, I stayed cause that is just the type of person I am. I ended up staying at her house for six days. We had made a pretty good dent in the chocolate so we decided that we should actually go camping and explore the Cumberland Plateau -land of Deep Gorges and Tall Waterfalls.

We had really wanted to go to Fall Creek Falls State Park which has been rated by many different sources as the “Best State Park” in all of Tennessee. The problem was that it was the weekend and it was Spring Break in Tennessee. Luckily for us (well sort of), the weather forecast was rainy and cold so there were some cancellations and we were able to find two campsites together. Of course these campsites were not the prime ones – we really struggled to get into them. Thank goodness for some kind Samaritans who helped us, otherwise I'm embarrassed to say but it would have been a lost cause and we would have had to go back home with our tails between our legs.

Kathy and my sites in the park - you can't see the trees right next to the road on the opposite side

or the sharp curve in the road - it was tough 

The first day we actually left Fall Creek Falls State Park and headed up the road to Rock Island State Park. Why? Waterfalls!!! Most of this post is going to be all about waterfalls so if that isn't your “thing”, then perhaps you will want to mosey on to some other important part of your life. Rock Island has two waterfalls. The first falls is called Great Falls and is thirty feet tall. It was a little unnerving to walk down to the base of the falls because of the warning signs that they posted.

OK - seems to me,  lifejacket or not, you are going to die

Well worth the danger - a lovely waterfall

The other falls is called Twin Falls and is eighty feet tall. There was a trail that meandered along the opposite shore from the waterfalls which was great because these falls were huge and you couldn't have gotten the whole scope and feel of them being up close to them. They seemed to come out of the solid rock about forty feet below the top of the gorge instead of over the top of the gorge. I later learned that they were not natural falls, in a way, but were created when they dammed the Caney River which caused the water to find a different way to flow downstream.

Compare this picture with the next picture

Same picture but with special effects - I figured out how to make the water all silky looking

Kathy out on a ledge

Doin' The JR Thang

Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area has hundreds of miles of trails, resides in two states (Kentucky and Tennessee), three Visitor Centers, a 600 foot deep gorge that runs through it and the edge of it is only a couple of blocks from Kathy's house. Most importantly there is a Junior Ranger program. Perhaps even more importantly is the fact that this is going to be Kathy's very first ever attempt at being a Junior Ranger. A most important milestone indeed. After watching the movie, finishing the book, going up the mountain to look over the gorge, I have to tell you that I felt immense pride as Kathy raised her right hand and took her Junior Ranger oath. Another Junior Ranger is born.

Check out the color of the water!!!

As we traveled around the area, we crossed and heard about the Obed river. Turns out it is called the Obed Wild and Scenic River and ….wait for it....another Junior Ranger opportunity. We checked out all of the sights and did all of the JR tasks needed to become badge worthy. It took us most of the afternoon. What we didn't take into account was that the Ranger Station was on Eastern Time while we were operating on Central Time. As a consequence, we got back to the Ranger Station fifteen minutes after they closed. What a bummer. But wait, what is it we see? Taped on the front door is a large envelope with our names on it. Inside were two Junior Ranger badges and bonus...two Obed Wild and Scenic River patches. Kudos to Ranger Leo who was so thoughtful to do this for us.

Northrop Falls is also very close to Kathy's house and we took Miko and meandered over to walk the trail. It was a fairly easy trail in Colditz Cove State Natural Area that passes towering rock walls and leads to a seventy foot waterfall. Fun, fun, fun trail as we had to do a little rock scrambling to make the loop.

You could walk behind the falls

Full Frontal View

Miko and Me

Clever how I worked the title of my blog into this caption

I think I posted a similar picture of this water tower last time I came thru Allardt several years ago

For some reason it always cracks me up  

Jamestown - Not The Virginia One - The Other One

Miko and I left the Cumberland Gap and headed over to Jamestown, Tennessee which is where my dear friend Kathy lives. I parked in her driveway – I think in the RV world they call it Moochdocking.  It was nice, I had water and electricity hookup but I could spend most of my time in her house, lounging in front of the fireplace. This was a true luxury as the weather gods had the audacity to actually snow on me. I leave Minnesota to come down south to get out of the cold and what happens? SNOW.!!! Kathy helped get me past this setback as her sister had sent her, for her birthday, about fifty pounds of chocolate. This was not your Hershey or Dove type of chocolate – this was Neuhaus – luxury Belgian chocolate. Folks, I'm also not exaggerating about the fifty pounds either. Well, maybe I am a tiny bit – but it was a massive gift. Chocolate, fireplace and a good friend – I can weather any type of misfortune.

Just Yuk!!!

My antenna broke and since I'm not good in high places, Kathy took pity on me and fixed it

Walking the woods behind Kathy's place - Miko in a rare unleashed mode L-R: Jaspar, Tux, Miko

And now a front view.....Miko is not allowed on couches

The area where Kathy leaves is on the Cumberland Plateau and this particular area is supposed to have, in the United States, the second largest number of rock arches in one place . The place with the most arches is Arches National Park in Utah, of course. The premier set of arches in Tennessee is called Twin Arches because there are two of them, duh. We debated taking all the dogs to hike to the arches but we were really glad that we didn't. There were some really steep narrow stairs that the dogs couldn't not have gotten done. Hey, I barely made it down these stairs myself.

The stairs - they were worse in person than in the photo

North Arch

More North Arch

I walked on top of one of the arches, yes I did - looking over the edge would have been way too much for me

Number Facts: The North Arch has a clearance of 51 feet, a span of 93 feet and its deck is 62 feet high: South Arch has a clearance of 70 feet, a span of 135 feet and its deck is 103 feet high.

Hazard Cave is a very special spot for Kathy. It was one of the very last outings that she and her husband Bill did together before he passed on. The walk down to the cave was beautiful, lots of rocks, lots of rhododendrons, sort of a mossy secret place. The cave itself was big but what made it special for me was when Kathy took out her Indian flute and played in the cave. She was playing for Bill and that, with the sound of moving water and the largeness of the cave, it was very moving.

Cumberland Gap, It's A Devil Of A Gap

Besides waterfalls, I'm a sucker for factory tours, especially the type of factory tour where they have conveyor belts and tons of automatic machines. Imagine my joy when I found a factory tour just five miles off my route. Mayfield Dairy was my intended target. I faithfully followed Google maps which seems to consistently enjoy taking me down back road shortcuts. As a consequence, I came into the dairy from the back way and missed where the buses and RVs were supposed to park. I ended up parking the RV among a bunch of Mayfield tractor trailers. 

They had these big Jersey cows everyplace - I guess you could call it a whole herd of Jerseys

After paying my five dollars for the tour, getting my ticket for a free ice cream and watching a movie, we all had to don bright red hairnets. The guys on the tour had to put on beard nets which were pretty funny. We were not allowed to take any pictures on the tour and if we removed our hairnets we would be ejected from the tour.

Miko in the red hairnet - she looks thrilled, doesn't she?

Mayfield Dairy is a huge operation – they not only bottle milk, they make ice cream and yogurt.  They bottle thousands of gallons of milk a day.  The tour starts with machines that would make the plastic bottles. They would make 4 half gallon bottles every 8 seconds. Mayfield bottles are yellow bottles. They say that when milk that is in those clear plastic bottles it loses 25% of their nutritional value within two hours of being on a grocery shelf because of UV rays whereas milk in these yellow bottles only lose 5% of their nutritional value. The bottles arrange themselves on a conveyor belt and then go into these big circular wheels where they are filled and the bottle caps are screwed on. Fascinating to watch.  Back onto conveyor belts off to be packaged. They don't use oil or grease to keep all these machines running, they use soapy water. It keeps everything nice and slick while also cleaning the machines all day long. Of course the floor of the plant was ankle deep in soap sud runoff in some places. The tour was great – tons of different products were being packaged and the machinery was just whirring along without human intervention. Actually, I suppose it was sort of creepy in a way – this is our future – we don't need no stinkin' people anymore, Machines Rule!!!

As we ended the tour, the guide told us about all the different flavors of ice cream that we could sample with our little blue ticket after the tour. I had mentally picked out the flavor I was going for (white chocolate raspberry) when a voice came over the tour guide's walkie talkie saying that whoever had the big RV pulling a car needed to move the rig immediately. As a consequence, there was no ice cream for me this day.

I moved up to the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. I stayed in the National Park campground. I suppose I should look at maps a little bit better when I travel but the park is right in that corner where Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia come together. Imagine my surprise when I found that I would be sleeping in Virginia instead of Kentucky where I thought I was going. The campground had just opened for the season on the day I arrived and I was Camper #3 in the campground.

Had to go under a mountain

The Cumberland Gap is a narrow pass through the Cumberland Mountains. Its significance is that it was instrumental in opening up the west. During it's active years about 300,000 people traveled through the Gap to start new lives in Kentucky and Tennessee and points west. While Thomas Walker is the first white man to document the gap, it was used earlier by Cherokee and Shawnee tribes when they would raid each other's encampments. Daniel Boone, though, is the one who really opened the way – broadening the trail making it easier for settlers to move west. He actually lost a couple of sons to First Nation attacks as he himself brought his family west.

Miko and I hiked to the Cumberland Gap. You hike up a gentle rise and then there is a flat spot which they were calling the Gap that was only about 300 feet long. Then the path started down. So, unless I'm mistaken – the Cumberland Gap (which I always thought was this huge westward ho road) was just a short little jaunt.

Cumberland Gap right here

Early in the 20th century, most rural roads were not much better than when Daniel Boone traveled on them.  The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture  sponsored the building of smooth crushed-rock roads.  The object was to convince voters of the convenience and value of building better roads.  These roads were called Object Lesson roads.

This is one of them thar Object Lesson Roads.  I suppose it was in a bit better shape 100 years ago

We drove up a winding switchback road to Pinnacle Peak

We also hiked up Tri-Peak mountain which is where the three states all come together.  I had so much fun making Miko walk from Tennessee to Virginia to Kentucky all within a couple of seconds that I forgot to take a picture.  

We met a man hiking up the mountain when we were on our way down who was a maintenance man at the local high school.  He told me that he was a jack of all trades and that he had an office with his name on the door.  Underneath his name on the door were the letters TBC.  He told me that stands for Toilet Bowl Cleaner.  Everybody gets a title these days I guess.

Pardon Me Boys, Is That The Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Can anybody think of Chattanooga without thinking of the song Chattanooga Choo Choo? Note: It was the first ever song to receive a gold record, presented by RCA Victor in 1942 for sales of 1.2 million.

I've found a really nice little county park right outside of Chattanooga. It is on a peninsula that juts out into Chickamauga Lake which is just really a wide spot in the Tennessee River. A lot of the campsites are right on the water – or they would be if the water wasn't so low. Every winter, they let the water recede and then when spring comes, they open the dam and let the water from all the snow and rain up north come flooding down, which brings the water level back up.

My view out my door

Did I mention the nuclear power plant across the lake?

There are a lot of touristy things to do in Chattanooga (Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls) but I am here to go to the Chattanooga Aquarium. It is supposed to be one of the nation's top aquariums and it is located right on the shores of the Tennessee River. There are two buildings in the aquarium, one is titled River Journey while the other is Ocean Journey. When I bought my ticket ($29.95 per person – whoa, that is a pricey ticket), the ticket seller told me that I should start in the River Journey building. I was a little disappointed – I mean – oceans just seem so much more exciting than rivers. Oceans are dynamic, oceans thunder and roar. Rivers, on the other hand, just quietly go about their business, bringing their water down to feed the mighty ocean. Actually, if I had to pick, I probably favor rivers more than oceans – they are more peaceful, going places in an orderly manner.

Now that I've visited the Aquarium, I am glad I started with the River Journey. The River Journey building is as tall as a twelve story building. You take an escalator to the fourth floor and then follow a series of ramps down to the ground level. They have huge aquariums that are actually four stories tall. On each level, there are side rooms where you can veer off and explore different types of river life.

The escalator - almost like Disneyland with little TV screens to watch as you ascended

Part of one of the really tall tanks

Look!!!  A Waterfall !!!!  They had an aviary up on the top floor with lots of free flying birds

I guess baby gators can be cute

Several of the bigger alligators had their toenails colored.  Here you can see the Pink Gator

Found a fish I thought was pretty - it was all silvery and very elegant

And then it smiled at me

Perhaps this is a better candidate for Mr. Handsome Fish

I was impressed with the turtles and tortoises that were on display. All types, all sizes. I watched several boy turtles trying to impress their lady friends. They swim up to the girls and get nose to nose with them. They then put their front claws up on each side of her head and start fluttering them. It was rather romantic.

Check out the neck on this one

The Ocean Journey is only ten stories tall, but has the largest tank in the aquarium. It can be viewed from three levels plus you can walk underneath the tank itself and watch the fish swimming above you. On the top floor, they have a lemur exhibit, a tank where you can touch sharks and sting rays and a butterfly garden. When I visited the butterfly garden, they were just releasing a bunch of newly emerged butterflies. I was disappointed that the penguin display was closed for it's weekly cleaning. No penguins were to be found, but you could watch the guy hosing down their quarters. How exciting was that? The coolest thing in the Ocean Journeys building though was the Jellyfish exhibits. They were so ethereal. The aquarium has collaborated with the Hunter Museum of American Art and includes rotating exhibits of art glass alongside the jellyfish.

If you get the blog in an email and are having problems seeing the video, click on the title of the blog in the email and it will take you to the website where you can watch the video. It's pretty cool.

The Aquarium was well worth the admission price. I probably spent about four hours there looking at all the fish. The finale was walking outside to the plaza and seeing a pair of tracks going off into the distance with the lyrics for Chattanooga Choo Choo running in between the tracks. Well done, Chattanooga.