Tennessee – Meanderings & Mind Munchies

A plethora of waterfalls

We are in the Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee, staying at the Spacious Skies Belle Ridge Campground in Monterey.

I absolutely love this region of Tennessee. I feel like I’m on top of the world.

In the last two days, we have visited three state parks, all known for their beautiful waterfalls and scenic views.

First up was Burgess Falls State Park.

Middle Falls at Burgess Falls State Park

Burgess Falls at Burgess Falls State Park. Note the two kayakers coming up to the falls. So jealous!

Later that afternoon, we visited Cummins Falls State Park.

We opted not to hike down to the base of the falls because the hike was treacherous and involved walking through knee-high streams. Instead, we enjoyed the falls from the overlook.

Today we drove the hour and a half to Tennessee’s largest state park, Fall Creek Falls State Park.

Another view of Cane Creek Falls with a rainbow at the base. There were people walking along the top of the falls mere feet from the edge. Nuts!

Fall Creek Falls. If you look closely, you can see little people at the bottom of the gorge. We could have hiked down there, but it was treacherous and we decided not to risk it.

Piney Falls. This is as close as I dared to get to the edge to take the picture. It was a straight drop into the gorge.

Scenic overlooks

The views here are breathtaking, starting with the scenic overlook at the campground.

Spacious Skies Belle Ridge scenic overlook

I love this photo of the sunset from the same location.

The town of Monterey also has a scenic overlook. Greg and I went there yesterday to check it out.

Greg tried hard to scare the living daylights out of me by standing very close to the edge of the cliff.

Falls Creek Falls State Park also had an overlook. These Tennesseans don’t believe in safety rails!

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so we will probably stay holed up in the camper, enjoying our books with a cup of hot tea.

Porter’s Creek Trail

We did another hike today. This one was a 2-mile hike to a waterfall.

After a rather harrowing 3-mile drive down a too-narrow, windy gravel road, we arrived at the trailhead. The trail itself went gently uphill for 2 miles to the waterfall.

The first mile was relatively easy. After that, we had to deal with rocks, roots, small streams, and bridges.

The last bridge was the scariest for me because it went over a section of the river that was deep and full of boulders.

Along the way, we saw lots of wildflowers.

And some creatures too.

But we made it to the falls without mishap. Yay!

Little River Trail and Kuwohi

Since Greg figured he hadn’t punished me enough yesterday, he decided we were going to do another hike this morning, the Little River Trail.

Luckily for me, it was a flat, gravel trail along a pretty little river.

We took our time and stopped frequently along the way to enjoy the scenery.

Afterward, we toured the village of Elkmont, a living history museum. Here is where the wealthy vacationed when they wanted to experience rustic living.

We snuck into a nearby campground within the park for a picnic lunch and then headed back to the camper for a nap. I did some laundry while Greg did some grocery shopping.

Then we headed to Kuwohi (formerly Clingman’s Dome), the highest point in Tennessee.

Kuwohi

When we left our campsite, the temperature was 88°. After driving 20 miles up the mountain to Kuwohi, the temperature had dropped to 55°. There was even snow on the side of the road!

After bundling up, we began the half-mile trek straight uphill to the observation tower. Thank God there were benches along the way because I thought I was going to die of a heart attack before we got there.

The plan was to watch the sun set over the mountains.

We and a bunch of our closest friends had the same idea. LOL. It was fun visiting with strangers while we waited the 45 minutes for the sun to set. We even met some folks from our area in Pennsylvania!

And despite what the app (SkyCandy) on my phone said about the low probability of a pretty sunset tonight, it did not disappoint.

Although this photo that Greg took is probably my favorite:

Once the sun had set, we trecked back down to the car and hung out for an hour to let the sky get fully dark. Our hope was to get to see the Milky Way, but alas, no such luck.

However, we did get to see the nearly full moon rise, and it was breathtaking.

The 20-mile drive back down the mountain in the dark was a little harrowing, what with the serpentine turns, narrow roads, and steep drop-offs, but we made it.

And we both agreed that the trip was well worth it — even with the loss of my favorite hat.

Titanic Museum and GSMNP

We began our day with a visit to the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge.

As we entered the museum, the staff — excuse me, “crewmen” — gave each of us a card with the name and statistics of one of the passengers on the Titanic.

I loved this idea because it gave us a personal connection to one of the passengers. As we continued through the tour, we tried to figure out whether our passenger had survived.

The first floor held artifacts and stories about the building of the Titanic, the layout, and the passengers. We weren’t allowed to take pictures on this floor, but it was extremely interesting and informative.

Then we went up to the next floor, where there were recreations of some of the Titanic’s rooms.

At the end of the tour, we got to find out what had happened to our particular passenger.

Since Greg’s passenger was one of the musicians, he played until the Titanic sank and perished along with the ship. My passenger was a 17-year-old girl, who survived and lived until the ripe old age of 81.

On our way out, we descended the grand staircase.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

After a quick lunch back at the camper, we headed to the Sugarlands Visitor Center for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg.

We talked to the park ranger about hiking opportunities within the park. Since neither of us was up to actually hiking today, we decided to drive around the park to get a feel for what we might like to do in the coming days.

The views were spectacular!

Greg decided he wanted to drive Newfound Gap Road, which is about 13 miles long.

We kept seeing light blue trees on top of the mountain. Greg thought the color was caused by clouds, and I wondered whether they were a special type of tree.

It was neither. It was snow covering the branches.

We finally reached the gap, where we parked and took some photos of the beautiful views.

Following our stop at the gap, we headed back to Pigeon Forge for dinner.

Unfortunately, the traffic was so bad that we decided to take a detour and have dinner in Gatlinburg instead of making dinner at the campground.

The restaurant was the Mellow Mushroom, and it was very good!

On the road again…

Greg and I are about to head out on our first camping trip of 2025. We’ll be doing a six-week trip through Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, with most of the time spent in Tennessee. Here is our tentative itinerary:

3/31 – 4/5	American Heritage RV Park	Williamsburg area
4/5 – 4/10	Waynesboro North 340 Campground	Charlottesville, VA, area
4/10 – 4/11	Pioneer Village RV Park	Port Chiswell, VA, area
4/11 – 4/18	Riverbend Campground	Pigeon Forge, TN, area
4/18 – 4/23	Spacious Skies Belle Ridge	Monterey, TN
4/23 – 4/28	Raccoon Mountain Campground	Chattanooga area
4/28 – 5/4	Elm Hill RV Resort	Nashville area
5/4 – 5/8	EZ Days RV Park	Memphis area
5/8 – 5/11	Thousand Trails Diamond Caves	Park City, KY, area
5/11 – 5/14	Louisville South KOA Holiday	Louisville, KY, area
5/14 – 5/17	Seneca Lake Park and Campground	Cambridge, OH, area
5/17 – 5/18	TBD	PA, somewhere

Child #2 and Child #4 will be holding down the fort for us. I’ve outfitted both of their bedrooms with fire escape ladders in case they set the house on fire while we’re away.

Tennessee, here we come!