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Our next stop after Tallulah Gorge State Park is another state park in Georgia but in the far northwestern corner of the state. We have never camped at Cloudland Canyon State Park, but we have hiked here back in the fall of 2021. Since that visit was just a day trip but the hike we did was outstanding - and made it to our best hike list in our sixth year review, we decided to work a stop on our journey north to see what else there is in the area. The drive is pretty but a challenge in the size motorhome we drive. It was one of the less pleasant drives mainly because of all the hills and curves. We did stop for lunch in Ducktown Tennessee at a closed business. Chris made lunch while I took the opportunity to relax a bit and check out a very interesting EarthCache less than a mile away. The area used to have several large copper mines and a some of the equipment and buildings are still on the old mine site.
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| Large Smelting Pot |
Our route eventually gets us to the Chattanooga area before heading south into Georgia. Lots of construction and traffic made this part of the drive an unpleasant section as well. The final 8 miles into the park is a steep grade with plenty of switchbacks. One 3.5 miles section climbs 1150 feet for a 6% grade. I was never so happy to make it to a campsite. Unlike our previous two state parks, this campground had very spacious sites. Besides the main parking pad for the rig, there were 2 large gravel areas adjacent with a barbecue grill, fire pit and picnic table.
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| Welcome to Cloudland Canyon SP |
Cloudland Canyon State Park is over 3500 acres with the main developed areas like the East Rim and West Rim Campgrounds and visitor center are situated high above a 1000 foot deep gorge formed by a couple of creeks. For our first full day, we drive over to explore the area near the visitor center and the main overlooks.
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| Unusual Roofline - Visitor Center |
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| View Over the Canyon |
There is a major construction project taking place along a section of the Overlook Trail so we cannot get to all of the viewpoints but we can still get to many of them. One of the unique features of this park that we remember from our prior visit are the beehive shaped stone pillars that help to make up the railing along the edges of the overlooks. I had wondered how they were constructed by the CCC back in the 1930’s. Well, I got the opportunity to see the innards of one of them that had been smashed by a large pine tree. They seemed fairly simple with just a concrete block core and lined with rocks and mortar into the desired shape.
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| Different View of Canyon |
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| Overlook with Beehive Pillars |
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| Damaged Pillar Shows Construction Method |
After finishing up the Overlook Trail we continue south onto the Bear Creek and Backcountry Trails. There are numerous geocaches hidden in this part of the park and we had not had a chance to explore previously so we let them be our guide. By the time we made it back to the car, we had gotten in a 5.4 mile hike and enjoyed lots of new sights along the way.
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| Meadow View |
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| Viewing Platform |
The next day we decide to give the West Rim Loop Trail a try. This was our favorite hike from our first visit to the state park but this time we can pick up the trail right from the campground which will reduce the hike down to around 3 miles instead of the 6 miles it took to start from the visitor center along the east rim. When we got to the loop portion of the hike, we head right towards the rim of the canyon. It was as pretty as we remember although our previous visit was in the autumn so there were some nice fall colors in the trees.
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| View of East Rim from West Rim |
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| Chris Enjoys the View |
It wasn’t very busy on the trails so we tended to have the various overlooks and trail to ourselves. Even without the fall colors, there were a fair number of plants in bloom and the rhododendron were nice.
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| Mind the Gap! |
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| Rhododendron in Bloom |
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| Beehive Pillar |
As we work our way around the northern end of the loop there are plenty of other overlook platforms that provide great views of the canyon and the town below.
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| Another Canyon View |
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| Overlook |
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| Northernmost Overlook |
When we did this hike before, we had never taken the other half of the loop through the woods since we had enjoyed the rim side with all its views too much. We decided to complete the loop - or at least try to complete it. Turns out there was a geocache to be found that was best reached by cutting through the walk-in campground area. It was then that we started to hear and feel rain drops coming through the tree canopy. Since we no longer had a view of the sky, we hadn’t noticed that rain was moving in. We were definitely going to get wet but then we realized that they have some pretty nice restroom facilities for the tent campers and we were able to duck into one of them and wait the storm out. We were pretty well soaked by then but at least we were able to continue the hike back to camp without walking in the pouring rain.
By midafternoon, we had dried out enough and thought the chance of rain was low enough to try another hike. This time we drove to the eastern side of the park to the Backcountry Trailhead. We had a section of the trail we hadn’t gotten to yesterday and there were a few more geocaches to find. We enjoyed the hike and found the majority of the caches but we nearly got soaked again on this 2.5 mile hike. I’m beginning to wonder if we should even bother to look at the weather forecast before heading out.
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| Creek Along Backcountry Trail |
There is another section of Cloudland Canyon State Park to the east of the more developed area we have been hiking and camping. There is a connector trail that can be used to walk between them but it would likely be better to leave the park and drive over to a different trailhead. From what we can tell, this other section is tailored more for mountain biking and from what we know of the general terrain around here, they likely would be challenging trails for us to bike. But we will save that section for some future visit since the was one more trail within the main part of the park that we have yet to hike - Sitton’s Gulch Trail. This is a 4.9 mile out and back hike with just over 1000 feet of elevation gain. There is a parking area and trailhead on the very northern end of the park which would follow the trail in the uphill direction first - our preferred direction for hikes with big elevation change. But it is easier for us to just stay within the park and leave from the visitor center even though it will mean the return trip will be uphill.
The trail down into the bottom of the canyon is a typical dirt trail in decent shape. But the section of trail near the bottom of the canyon is all stairs which reminds us of Tallulah Gorge from last week.
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| Large Overhanging Rock |
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| Down the Steps |
While technically not part of the intended hike, we feel the need to go back on the two spur trails that leads to both Cherokee Falls and then Hemlock Falls. We had seen these on our last trip but they are very pretty and the extra distance and stairs are worth the effort. We did need to keep moving since there was a bus load of school children heading down behind us and we didn’t want to get stuck on the viewing platforms with large group of screaming kids.
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| Heading Back to Cherokee Falls |
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| Cherokee Falls |
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| More Stairs Down |
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| Heading to Hemlock Falls |
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| A Misty Hemlock Falls |
Once we completed the falls, we could cross the bridge over Daniel Creek and continue down the trail. In my mind, I had envisioned that this trail along the creek would be more overgrown and challenging but it turns out to be a fairly wide path in excellent shape and follows immediately to the side of the creek so you have the constant sound of rushing water.
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| Surprisingly Nice Gulch Trail |
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| Daniel Creek |
There was only one spot along the trail where there was a water crossing. Fortunately we didn’t need to cross the creek itself, but a rather large stream coming down the canyon wall to our left.
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| Water Crossing Along Gulch Trail |
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| Frog Highlighted in Photo |
Near the far end of the trail, the canyon floor widens out and there were a couple of short loop trails. We take them since each one had a geocache hidden along them.
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| Oakleaf Hydrangea Starts to Bloom |
This part of the canyon was quite lush and pretty. One of the caches was an ammo can with a chunk of wood on top of it. After removing the wood and setting it aside, I noticed a salamander guarding the cache and not in any hurry to get out of my way.
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| Mini Mushroom |
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| Sentry Salamander |
We had nearly made it to the turnaround point without seeing another person after leaving the falls but once we made it near the parking lot, we seemed to find a fair number of people. All in all, this was a wonderful hike. Admittedly the return trip was a bit more challenging but not until we made it to the never ending stairs back up to the east rim and our car.
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| Cool Lichen Pattern |
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| Millipede |
With just one day left, we needed a break from all the hiking we having been doing. So we decided to to do a bit of sightseeing in Chattanooga Tennessee. It’s only about a half hour drive from camp and we have never been there. We start out at the “Chattanooga Choo Choo”. A real train that made its first trip from Cincinnati to Chattanooga in March of 1880 but possibly remembered more from the song performed by Glenn Miller in the 1940’s.
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| Overlooking Old Train Station in Chattanooga |
The old steam engine and passenger car are sitting on tracks in the former rail station. The building has been converted into a nice array of various shops and restaurants. The interior of the main room is quite spectacular.
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| Old Steam Engine |
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| Inside of Passenger Car |
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| Domed Train Station Ceiling |
From here, we set off to explore downtown Chattanooga. There is a webcam cache from 2005 still in operation at the convention center. The posted coordinates do not really get us to the location of the webcam but we eventually figure out where we need to stand to get our photo.
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| Hallway in Convention Center |
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| Chris and Jack Pose for Webcam |
Our next destination was to get to the Tennessee Riverwalk. We had a surprisingly hard time finding streets that actually made it the mile or so from the center of downtown to the river. There was a lot of new development taking place and many of the streets we expected to work were fenced off. But with some perseverance, we made it and found the actual walk was quite pretty.
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| Colorful Sculpture |
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| Old Riverboat |
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| Tour Boat Cruises the River |
There are some interesting building and the aquarium looked like a nice place. Too bad we don’t have more time to check it out.
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| Tennessee Aquarium Building |
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| Old Lift Bridge |
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| Aquarium Water Park |
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| Hunter Art Museum |
Having learned our lesson, when we were growing tired, we stopped for an ice cream then took a different route back to the car. This took us past some more historical buildings with traditional architecture. We ended up somewhere between 6 and 7 miles of walking downtown Chattanooga. If we make it back to Cloudland Canyon, we need to budget more time for Chattanooga.
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| Tall Stone Tower |
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| More Traditional Architecture |
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| Street Swing? |
Our five nights in northwestern Georgia went by quickly. We have two nights before we need to be in the Cincinnati area for our next reservation. Our first stop will be in Knoxville Tennessee at the Elks Lodge - 130 miles. We have stayed there once before in the fall of 2021 as we were heading south to Florida. This time we arrive early enough to actually get in a little bit of sightseeing in. We head over to the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum.
It is a fairly big place on the east side of town. We ended up parking near some event center since we saw a lot of cars parked. But it turned out there was some sort of private event so it took us a while of wandering around the gardens to find the main visitor center and get a map of the trail.
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| Rock Garden |
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| Huge Bird Nest |
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| Circular Stone Building |
There were fewer things in bloom than we were expecting but it was still a nice place to walk around. Some of the old building on the property are in need of a fair amount of TLC while others have been well taken care of. We didn’t spend more than an hour before heading back to the lodge which should now be open.
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| Golden Columbine |
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| Metal Sculpture |
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| Prickly Pear Cactus Bloom |
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| Vegetable Garden |
We sit around the bar at the lodge and talk with several of the locals getting an idea of other things to do in the area when we make it back this way and telling them what our plans are for the upcoming summer. I found the clock hanging over the bar to be amusing.
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| What Time is It? |
The next day is a 169 mile drive up I-75 to Lexington. Along the way we got into a fair amount of traffic. At first we assumed it to be either construction or an accident but as we neared London Kentucky, it was clear why everyone was driving so slowly. The deadly EF4 tornado that had come through the area less than 24 hours earlier. The destruction was incredible and it was clear how it had gone from the neighborhood on one side of the interstate to the one on the other side. Lots of debris was all along the side of I-75. We made it to the Cabelas in Lexington and setup in the corner of their large parking lot. Having stayed here before, we knew there was a Chuy’s restaurant close by and we treated ourselves to dinner and then a relatively quiet evening camped in the parking lot.
Next stop - East Fork State Park near Cincinnati Ohio for 13 nights.
