Fall Creek Falls 2013

We had the weekend off, so we took our grand babies and daughter camping at Fall Creek Falls.  This was a car camping trip.  They went over Friday evening and I joined them for the weekend.  We did the Cain Creek falls hike to the overlook and then spent the afternoon at the pool.  The next day we hiked to the bottom of Fall Creek Falls and then spent the afternoon at the Cain Creek swimming hole.  We got a lot of time at the play ground as well.  Great weekend!

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Walls of Jericho TTA

Beautiful day for a hike, 55 degrees this morning starting from home. I drove to the Alabama state line thru lots of farmland going the scenic route. Through the Savage Gulf area, to Hwy 50, through Pelham, Decherd, Winchester. Nice drive. Met up with the folks from Murfreesboro at the trailhead. Roy was our hike leader. We shuttled cars to the AL trailhead then started at the TN trailhead. I asked right away who was the scout for snakes. Someone said the one in the lead. I was the 5th in line and found the snake. Black snake, looked comfortable sleeping. We let him sleep. The trail was a little overgrown in some areas. We did find a few ripe huckleberries...yummmm. We also spotted some wildflowers blooming; Pipsissewa, daisies, Spiderwort, Indian Paintbrush, Ashy Hydrangea. 

All the creeks were dry today so we didn't go to the blowhole. We met Marietta coming up from the walls, she had been planing to meet us and hike out, but she had already spent some time at the walls and was ready to hike out. It was warming up. When we arrived at the walls, there was one hole of water you could swim in, but just a little bit trickling down from the walls. There were plenty of tadpoles in the little pools of water. We found a shady spot and ate lunch. We had to climb on up to inspect the big hole and to see if there was any water coming over the waterfall. There wasn't and the hole was dry too. There was a vine with some blooms on it that were very interesting. I thought it might be Vasevine, not sure. Since I forgot my camera.......

The hike out seemed mostly uphill...hmmm what's up with that. We saw some cool looking centipedes and millipedes on the trail. I knew it was getting close to suppertime and mentioned that to Nabil, who said that we should go for ice cream when we got off the trail. Our hike leader had a cooler filled with ice cold water waiting for us in the parking lot. 

It was a good day of hiking and enjoyed being with Sara, Nabil, Jamie, Wayne, Jan, and Roy.

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Rock Island State Park

Lora and I decided to do an overnight trip to Rock Island State Park.  We headed out Friday evening and got to the park at dinner time.  We found our site in the campground ate dinner and went exploring.  We started on the other side of the river and hiked the 1.6 mile Downstream trail.  It is rated strenuous but we found it quite easy.  It goes by the Twin Falls, the Blue Hole, and does a loop at the bottom.  There is a side trail that leads to a rock house with a creek cascading down a rock formation just in front of the rock house. Pretty neat!

After that we hiked the 0.5 mile Upstream trail also labeled as strenuous.  It goes up to the flat rock bed down from the Great Falls.  After that we drove back to the other side of the river to visit the Great Falls overlook, the Cotton Mill, Castle, and another overlook.  We saw a couple of deer while we were out.  We then headed to the boat launch and beach to check it out.

We got back to camp, set up our camp, and started our campfire.  All was good!

The next morning we got up ate breakfast, broke down camp, and headed off for a fun filled day.  We started with the 1.7 Bluff trail.  It is a lollipop trail which includes a grown up Bluff which probably had views in the winter.  We kicked up a deer on the trail.  From here we went to hike the 3 mile Collins River trail.  It wonders along the Collins River and then cuts up by a cemetery and old home site.

After our hiking, we took our canoe and headed to the boat launch.  There were a lot of people out this morning.  We headed upstream to the Blue Hole and then went down stream as far as Barren Creek.  We saw lots of canoes and kayaks on the water.  We stopped and visited a man at the Horseshoe Bend Marina who told us about a water fall on Barren Creek.  So after you pass the Webb's Camp Road boat ramp you go across the river to Barren Creek.  You go as far as you can by boat and then walk up the creek 100 yards to the falls.  Very pretty area.

After we got back we loaded up and headed home.  It was a beautiful area to visit.

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