A new adventure! Friday morning I left home with a group of 14 (10 teens and 4 adults) from church to travel 93 miles to Savage Gulf State Natural Area. We set up our camp at # 4 Group site. With hammocks hung and tents assembled we were ready for some fun before dinner.
Some of us decided to explore the falls while some stayed behind to play games. The hike to the falls started at the Ranger station. About 300 yards from our campsite was the Ranger station, so we had an easy time of it! It was 1.5 mile hike to the falls from the Ranger station. One plus to having the Ranger station nearby was that it has flushable toilets!
We crossed two suspension bridges on our way to the falls which were really cool. The hike was fairly easy. It was very humid but as we neared the falls the air got cooler and cooler. There were pools that ran over huge rocks. The kids stopped and climbed down the rocks to play in the pools.
Peeking through some giant honeysuckles I could see the pool but not the falls. We stood on the top of the giant rocks and looked over into a larger pool. I walked on down the path to the bottom of the falls where the water cascaded over the rocks from above and dropped into a beautiful pool surrounded by natural rock walls. As I was watching my son climbed around on the giant rocks surrounding the pool. It was beautiful! It was a fun place to climb around. Then I climbed back up the steps. Those steps were the hardest part of the hike for me. Getting my breath I started the 1.5 mile hike back to camp.
The next morning we decided to leave camp at 8 am to hike to the falls again with our whole group. It was actually much more humid than the evening before. Trees which must have blown over in the recent storms were uprooted and fallen along the path. A deer silently watched us from amid the trees. Crossing the suspension bridges took a bit longer with a larger group. We crossed two at a time stopping in the middle to look at the stream before stepping on to the end. When we had all crossed we continued on down the trail toward the falls.
No one was in sight when we arrived at the falls. It was very still and beautiful. The pool was shadowed because of the time of day but soon the sun reached us from between the high canopy of trees. Everyone decided to go swimming. There are too many huge rocks beneath the surface to allow jumping or diving but there were plenty of places to swim and play in the water. The group had a great time climbing around and standing beneath the water fall to get a shower. We explored the rocks and swam for a couple of hours and then headed toward our campsite.
As we started the return hike we met several groups out for a day hike. There were several family groups with young and old hikers. One group was 11 ladies, old college friends, who meet-up every year for a reunion. Everyone on the trail was friendly to our group. By the time we arrived at the Ranger station we were all hot and sweaty and ready for the bathroom and some water.
I had fun hiking in Tennessee!