Pickett State Park

11/21 - 11/24/18
Thanksgiving Weekend

We rented a cabin at Pickett State Park in TN for the Thanksgiving weekend. A couple hours drive and getting set up left a little bit of time for a short hike near the lake and then back for dinner.

Thanksgiving morning we woke up slow and then loaded up the car for a little bit of driving exploration and some hiking. I had never been on this side of Big South Fork so I was happy to drive and check out some of the stuff that appears on the map.

First stop was Buffalo Arch. A nice ~1 mile hike to the arch with very little change in elevation.

This cell phone photo gives an idea of the scale, this is a big arch.

And then a some driving to check out a couple small campgrounds in the area and then we went to find a waterfall I had seen online.

About a mile on the Sheltowee Trace got us to Mark Branch Falls

After that, it was time to head home for dinner.

The next day I got to do a longer hike on the Hidden Door Trail in the actual State Park. In an 8 mile loop, the trail has some great views from high up and passes a couple nice waterfalls.

Crystal Falls

Double Falls

Small falls/drops along Thompson Creek

Pickett State Park was a great place to spend a weekend and we will definitely be back.

Cumberland Falls

12/29 - 12/30/16

My wife and I took advantage of the grandparents in town and escaped for a night to a cabin at Cumberland Falls State Park. I took advantage of the kid free time to play with my camera, my wife choose to read and enjoy the fireplace.

The river was really high which made the falls look bigger than normal. It also meant that our hike to Eagle Falls was cut short since the last little bit was under water.

Cumberland Falls, the "Niagra of the South". The light was pretty challenging, the falls only look good in B&W.

This is a stitch of 30 individual shots merged with MS ICE. The original is ~19000 x 8000 pixels.

Unnamed falls across the river. My wife slipped in this creek on the hike to Eagle Falls.


Eagle Falls

The sunset from the cabin porch was nice, not much of a view, but the sun through the trees was pretty.

Carter Caves

The family has enjoyed the cabins at other state parks in the past. It was decided a while back that we would spend the MLK weekend at Carter Caves State Park because the weather would not matter if we were in a cave.

The weather was mostly overcast and low-30s on Sat and Sun. Woke up Mon to mostly clear skies and mid-teens.

I got to explore the park a little bit with my oldest and then by myself. There is good day-hiking and lots to see in the park. We will be back.

Pine Mountain State Park

We rented a one bedroom cabin at Pine Mountain State Park. I got to do a little hiking both with and without the kids.

Honeymoon Falls

For my alone time, I started at the bottom of the Laurel Cove trail and headed up to Chained Rock. Along the way, the trail passes under Powderhorn Arch

My guess is this trail is one of the original in the park and was built by the CCC. It basically goes straight up and only switchbacks where it absolutely has to, a tough way to gain 1000 ft in about 1.5 miles.

Then up to Chained Rock. I first headed out the Timber Ridge trail and around Rock Hotel (nothing worth a picture since my battery was low), then back down to the car. A decent hike, but a good workout, about 5 miles and 1500 ft in 2 hours.