Tag Tennessee

Burgess Falls State Park

Burgess Falls State Park is everything you would expect of a park named after it's series of four, magnificent waterfalls. One trail will take you by each, successively more grand water feature, culminating at the base of the Burgess Falls.

Roughly half way between Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, a series of magnificent waterfalls bisect the state in a line running North to South. Given their position, they make for excellent day trips from both major cities in Tennessee.* We ventured out to hit as many as we could in one day. That number wound up being two. But they were an amazing two and were accompanied by pleasant hikes through the fall foliage. First stop was Burgess Falls State Park. Which has not one, but four beautiful waterfalls.

Read MoreBurgess Falls State Park

Alum Cave Trail

The Alum Creek Trail in the Great Smokey Mountains follows the Alum Cave Creek for the first 1.3 miles.

Alum Cave was first referenced in a land grant application by three North Carolina farmers in 1837. The resulting Epsom Salts Manufacturing Company mined alum, Epsom salt, saltpeter, magnesia, and copperas in the area until the salts were depleted in the mid 1840s. Today, it is part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a popular destination along the Alum Cave Trail.

Read MoreAlum Cave Trail

Clingmans Dome Observation Tower Hike

The hike to the top of Clingman's Dome may be steep but the end is an amazing vista of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The hike to the Clingmans Dome Observation Tower Hike is a short but steep half mile hike with an 311 foot elevation gain. It is an incredibly popular path—old and young stop to catch their breaths at the many benches along the path. While we leaned into the incline and trudged up the steep path even we were huffing and puffing with the high elevation exercise.

Read MoreClingmans Dome Observation Tower Hike

Dog Sitting

Black dog with purple ball

Temperature control is a lie you tell your body. That lie dissipates as quickly as sweat droplets form on your skin from the wall of humidity that meets you at the threshold to the outside. The outdoors are for mornings and evenings. But for the next few days, we will be seeking midday shelter in the home of a friend outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Read MoreDog Sitting

Smoky Mountains

We may have been rather rash when we assumed that visiting the Smokey Mountains on a weekday would be simple. Possibly, because this was a weekday when the leaves were changing. Fortunately, we only needed a spot for Wednesday night, because Thursday was booked solid.

Read MoreSmoky Mountains

Cherokee National Forest

We are taking a mini road trip for a few days in the mountains. After visiting some museums it was dark. Too dark. The kind of dark you get when you are driving on a heavily forested road without street lamps and only very small and infrequent road signs. A rational person—upon discovering that the only thing poorer than the road markings was the cellphone reception—might have concluded that any hopes of camping should be abandoned. Instead, we decided to drive on.

Read MoreCherokee National Forest