Foster Falls / Denny Cove

After work, Lora and I headed to Foster Falls Natural Area to campout for the night. We stayed at the Father Adamz campground. All the sites where booked so it was easy to pick the one that was not. This is a nice campground with some space between the sights. We even found firewood. We enjoyed the night around the campfire before retiring to our hammocks for the night.

The next morning, after hiking out, we headed to Denny cove to hike their new trails. We saw deer from the parking lot. We started out at the overlook and then hiked to the Buffet wall that the climbers use. From there we hiked on to the waterfall. Beautiful falls! On the way back we rescued a box turtle that had gotten himself stuck in a whole under a rock. Took some prying, but we got him out.

When we got to the trail split we hiked around the bluff on the Denny West trail and had lunch at the base of the bluff. We then headed back and hiked along the Denny East trail along the other bluff wall. We got to see a large black snake which luckily I got to spot before Lora. The snake and I still have our hearing. After that we got to see a lizard. Then we headed back to the car.

When we got to Dunlap we stopped to see the antique cars and tractors at their Days of Yesterville.

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First Day Hike Denny Cove

First Day Hike Denny Cove

This was a TN State Park hike led by Ranger John Ball with South Cumberland SP. The directions had a google map with the entry road across from the Foster Falls Volunteer Fire Department. I wrote down the directions and entered into my GPS. I gave myself 30 extra minutes since I wasn't familiar with the area. The GPS took me on the scenic route across Sequatchie Mountain Road, thru the dense fog, up then down the mountain. I turned around went back, called Craig for help, asked my phone to google it, my other GPS said I was still 30 minutes away. I finally got back on 41 and found the VFD, turned in 15 minutes late. Met a car coming out that said they drove in and saw No Trespassing signs and came back out. I told them it was a mile in but they didn't want to trespass so they left. I drove on and found the huge parking lot with a state truck and maybe 10 other cars. I got my pack and poles and started looking for the entry point. I found flagging but no sign. Another lady showed up and I told her we could hike together and maybe find the other hikers. She agreed to try it so we scouted for boot prints in the mud, no luck, then crossed the  gravel road and saw a road/trail and walked that way, found flagging then the bluff. We saw the Ranger and the other hikers down below, and started to climb down but they waved us on along the bluff to a better trail. One hiker came back to guide us. There are other trails used by the rock climbers leading to lots of climbing routes.

After apologies for our lateness, we hiked two miles in, seeing two waterfalls, and views into the beautiful cove, and  the Buffet Wall used by the climbers, There are lots of anchors on the wall so you can see some of the routes they take. No climbers today since it started out rainy and wet. The rain stopped for the hike, so we enjoyed hearing the Ranger tell us about the area. The trail ended along the Buffet Wall, volunteers are needed to continue the trail, There is another waterfall close by. The climbers deserve a lot of thanks and praise for getting this much built. Here is a link to their site, they are fundraising to help pay for the acquisition of this land.

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