Touring Tennessee

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With just over 2 weeks before returning to Titusville Florida, we leave southern Indiana, drive through Kentucky and stop just north of Nashville at the Madison Elks Lodge. The 173 mile drive is uneventful and we pull into the lodge to find several of the RV spaces available. They actually have several full hookup spots but they aren’t particularly level. We plan to spend 2 nights here before going into the mountains further southeast in the state. We head into the bar to register and pay. We talk to some of the locals about must see sights in the Nashville area since it’s less than 10 miles to downtown. We’ve camped in the area back in the spring of 2019 so we have already visited some of the suggestions but there were a few other suggestions that sounded interesting so we came up with a plan for our one full day in town.

We picked three places to see all within a few miles of one another on the southwest side of town. We start out at the Parthenon. This is a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek temple. Originally built in 1897 for Tennessee’s Centennial Exposition, the first building was intended to only be temporary so it was built of plaster and wood. It became such a tourist attraction in the early 1900’s that when the plaster began to deteriorate, the city commissioned a more permanent replacement which was completed in 1931.

The Parthenon in Nashville

We arrive to find the place very busy on a Friday morning. We wander around the outside before heading in to tour the interior. Tickets were $10 per person with senior discount. There are two floors and many galleries to explore. One of the newer features is the Athena statue on the second level. This was created by a Nashville artist and completed in 1990. It’s an impressive sight. Standing at almost 42 feet tall and covered with 8 pounds of gold leaf, it is one of the more popular attractions. We waited for the group of schoolchildren to move out before we could see it up close.

Athena

Closeup Detail

The other room on level 2 is the Treasury. This holds plaster casts of the original figures seen in Greece. These casts were taken well after a lot of deterioration - like missing heads, arms and legs. A smaller version of the figures was sculpted to show what they probably looked like.

Plaster Casts of Figures from Greece

The first level has a large number of galleries. Some explain the history of this building in Nashville as well as the creation of the Athena statue. Others have a large number of paintings, gifted by a wealthy benefactor. We probably spent an hour touring the museum.

One of Dozens of Paintings

The Parthenon is in the very large Centennial Park. We have an Adventure Lab that tours us around the park to see some of its monuments. They were getting setup for some sort of event at one end of the park and had temporary fencing installed that kept us out of some of it. It was definitely a pretty day for a walk.

Pond in Centennial Park

John W. Thomas Monument

As we leave the park, we across the street onto the Vanderbilt University campus. This is definitely a big place. We limited our walking to some of the sights highlighted in another Adventure Lab. They were preparing for a home football game tomorrow against LSU so there was a lot of activity near the stadium.

SAE House on Vanderbilt Campus

"Flying Torso"

Mechanical Engineering Building

Our next goal was to find a place for lunch before heading to Music Row. There were almost too many options being so close to campus but we finally settle on Torchy’s Tacos just off campus and had a good lunch. From here it was just a few blocks to the beginning of the Music Row.

Music Row Plaque

"Musica" Statue

Owen Bradley - Music Producer

A third Adventure Lab helped us tour the various studios. Chris had also found a walking tour that was more comprehensive at describing the many recording studios in the area. We walked 1.5 miles just seeing famous studios. Many of them have ads for their top stars out front but I’ll admit, most of them were artists we were completely unfamiliar with. For all we know, we walked by some famous musician and didn’t even know it.

RCA Studio

Curb Word Recording Company

Guitar Sculptures

It was close to 3 PM when we finished our musical tour of Nashville studios. We headed back across the Vanderbilt campus taking a slightly different route to see other parts of it.

"Zerogee"

Zeppos Dormitory 

Intricate Stone and Brickwork

Centennial Park seemed to be even more crowded but that might not be surprising since it was a nice Friday afternoon. We had a fun but short stop in Nashville.

Colorful Planting Bed along Centennial Park Walkway

Our drive to our next stop on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains near Tellico Plains Tennessee was a bit of a long one - coming in at 212 miles. Most of it was on interstate highways so not too bad but the last 30 miles up into the foothills was a narrow winding road for the majority of it. We had reserved a site at the Top of the World RV Park mostly in the middle of nowhere for a week. It is a smaller place with less than 20 campsites but the view from our spot was pretty incredible.

View from Campsite at Top of the World

We had a rather rainy the day after we arrived. We head to the small town of Coker Creek where there is a welcome center - it’s less than 5 miles southwest of camp. There weren’t many visitors and I think the volunteer may have been a bit lonely so she talked quite some time about what we needed to do to do since we have the remainder of a week to explore this part of Tennessee. She ends up giving us quite a few options, probably more things than we will have time for.

The skies cleared the next day and was looking to be glorious fall weather. We begin by heading north into the town of Tellico Plains. Our mission it to drive some of the Cherohala Skyway. This 43 mile road goes between this town in Tennessee to Robbinsville North Carolina. There is a nice visitor center with all sorts of information about the drive, things to see along the way and lots of shirts, hats and other souvenirs for those coming to complete the drive. It’s definitely a very popular destination for motorcyclists and owners of sports cars. In fact, just after parking, three Aston Martins came rumbling into the lot. I was a bit surprised to see such high end cars on the road together. Before I got to the visitor center, several more pulled in as well. Some of the, were fairly new models but some looked to be quite old. I’m not sure if any of them were modified to have some of the features that were in the Aston Martin that James Bond drove. As some of the owners entered the visitor center, I asked about their group and he told me that the other half of the cars were still 15 minutes away but there were 33 of them traveling together with plans to drive the skyway today. It looked like their rides would be much more fun than our Grand Cherokee!

We mange to get on the road before they have all arrived and start their drive, but I suspect we will see them again since we will be stopping at many of the overlooks and pullouts along the way. Sure enough at the Oosterneck Overlook, I hear several of them coming our way and zip by us quickly.

Pretty Stop Along the Cherohala Skyway

Aston Martin Cruises By

I would love to be able to say that through careful planning of our trip this fall, we had hit near peak colors in this part of Tennessee. But the reality was we simply lucked into experiencing great fall colors.

Another Nice View

Our first lengthy stop was at Indian Boundary Lake. This was one of the suggested hikes we received the other day at the welcome center. It’s about 1.5 miles north of the skyway. I was expecting it to be a dirt road to the recreation area but was pleased to find a nice paved road. Listed as a 3.2 mile loop around the lake with little elevation change, there doesn’t seem to be a preferred direction. There are several parking areas around the lake but we pick the closest one on the way in at the boat ramp and head clockwise.

View on Hike

Indian Boundary Lake

It was a very nice hike with good views of the lake and mountains. The northern edge of the lake has a walkway over the dam that helps create this body of water and even a nice looking beach area that was pretty deserted today.

Bridge Over Dam

Beach on Lake

After the hike, we drive back to the skyway and continue to the east. There are many pullouts with nice views. We stop at many of them to take in the beauty of the region. We wanted to do one last hike along the way. Fall Branch Falls Trail had been recommended plus we discovered there is a geocache hidden near the falls, giving us added incentive to complete this hike. There is a fairly large pullout and parking area for the trailhead a couple miles before crossing into North Carolina. There are two trails that start from this lot so pick the proper one. Our intended hike is on the western edge of the lot. This trail is an out and back hike of 2.5 miles total with just over 500 feet of elevation change with it being downhill to the falls.

Fungus on Fallen Tree

Washed Out Area of Trail

We ran into a couple of other hikers on their way back up and they were wishing they had hiking poles for this trail because there are some steep and muddy sections to contend with. We made it to the falls which were pretty even though at this time of year the water wasn’t flowing very fast. We found the geocache after a brief search and was happy nobody else was in the area when we were looking for it. The trail section with ropes tied to trees to help get up and down the steep hills was appreciated. It was a nice hike.

Getting Near the Falls

Fall Branch Falls

Rope Helps with Steep Climb

We could have continued driving east but decided it was late enough in the afternoon that we should just head back to camp since it is a fairly long drive from the trailhead. A few more stops on the drive home will help us remember this beautiful drive.

One Last View from Cherohala Skyway

One of the other suggestions we had gotten for a day trip was a tour of Mayfield Dairy. It’s about a 40 minute drive west to the town of Athens Tennessee. They only offer tours certain days of the week so we plan our visit accordingly. You receive a ticket for a free ice cream with each tour so the $9 per person tour price is pretty good.

Mayfield Dairy Visitor Center

They do not permit photography so I have nothing to show from inside the factory. We start out with a video that explains the history of Mayfield Dairy which dates back to 1910 when T.B. Mayfield Jr starts selling milk from his 45 Jersey cows to local residents. We head into the factory and see all the lines packaging milk in all sorts of different form factors from gallon jugs down to the cardboard containers sold at many local schools. We also saw ice cream being packaged in a wide variety of sizes depending on the end user. It was quite enjoyable to see how a large dairy factory works. During the tour, our guide also mentions how one of the local farms offers tours of their milking operations. It was too late to get a tour today but we put a trip on our itinerary for the rest of our stay.

Cow Art

Ready for a Parade?

The town of Athens wasn’t in a new Tennessee county but we only needed to drive another 5 miles or so drive into the town of Decatur and wandered around the town square for 10 minutes while we solved a multi-cache and made the find on our drive back to camp.

The next day we set off for another hike. Bald River Falls is a very popular destination in the area. It is accessed from the Cherohala Skyway about 5 miles from Tellico Plains on River Road. From the turn, it’s another 6 miles to the falls and the trailhead. While the road was paved and in decent shape, it is fairly narrow and winding so there was the fear some large vehicle would come from the other direction and make passing difficult. Fortunately we didn’t experience that problem. The parking area may have room for a couple dozen cars and it was nearly full when we arrived. At first I figured the trail was going to be quite busy until I realized that the main falls are visible from the road near the parking spots and most of the people are simply here to walk the few hundred feet from their car to the falls, take a few pictures and move on.

Bald River Falls Before Our Hike

We knew there is a viewpoint of the upper portion of the falls that’s only a tenth of a mile up the trail. We expected that at least a few people would venture that far to see them from a different perspective but we were the only people heading this way.

Start of the Trail

Walkway

Upper Falls Area

The trail is nice and generally follows the side of the Bald River - sometimes well above the water and other points fairly close.

Trail Along River

Another Section of Falls

This trail continues for a little over 4.5 miles before ending at another road through the forest. If we had another vehicle we could have made this a nice hike without any backtracking. But we were going to be forced to turn around at some point. There aren’t any geocaches along this trail so we didn’t have that as an incentive to go to a certain point.

American Strawberry Bush

Rock Outcropping on Trail

Even More Cascades

We had seen a side trail at the 1.5 mile mark and knew it would take us back to the main road where our car is parked but over a mile east of the car. We decide to turn around about 2 miles out and start to head back taking the side trail (#173)

Mushrooms on Bottom of Fallen Log

It turns out that this side trail has much more elevation change than the main trail. We start with a fairly decent climb for the first quarter mile. After cresting the hill, it’s all downhill to the road dropping 450 feet in the half mile or so. There were some challenging sections and since this is a minor trail, it wasn’t in as nice of shape but still manageable. Once at the road, we head west. It follows the Tellico River and we see decent views of it now and then. This section of road is also fairly narrow and there isn’t much of a shoulder so we did need to be careful when the occasional car comes along.

Cascades on Tellico River

About a third of a mile from the car, we discover there is a much larger pullout with vault toilets and picnic tables. The Baby Falls Day Use area would have been an alternative parking spot for the main falls if you’re willing to walk along the road for the short distance. There are some falls at this spot and it worked well for a snack stop on what turned out to be a 4.25 mile hike. The main falls was still quite busy when we returned and new visitors we happy to see us pull out so they could get a spot. All in all, a very nice hike.

Baby Falls

Bald River Falls After Our Hike

The next day, we took it easy and headed south into Georgia. We knew we would be traveling through the state on our way to Florida but there are a couple of northern counties we still haven’t found geocaches in and our current location would be our best option. It was a pretty drive on the twisty mountain roads as we head to the towns of Blue Ridge and Ellijay Georgia. It’s around a 60 mile drive each way. We found the desired caches but didn’t do a whole lot of sightseeing along the way. As we head back to camp around 5 PM, we decide to turn off to see a place named Buck Bald. There is an EarthCache located there for us to even realize the place exists.

It turns out that the road up to Buck Bald starts out paved but that doesn’t last long. It’s 2.5 miles and rises a little over 800 feet. The last 3/4 mile is on a road that just barely qualifies as one. There are large ruts and even in the Jeep, it’s a slow drive that jostles my body nearly more than I can take. But when we make it to the top, we are greeted with an amazing 360 degree view. While we are relaxing up top and not looking forward to the drive back down, we hear vehicles coming up. As they got closer, it sounded like several motorcycles. There was a group of six guys that we started talking with and offer to take a group photo for them. They explained that they were on a long journey, mainly traveling on lesser roads and camping along the way.

Atop Buck Bald

The next day was Friday and Sweetwater Valley Farms is open for tours so we plan a day trip to tour the dairy farm. It’s a bit north of where we toured Mayfield Dairy. It would be convenient if we could have done both tours on the same day but it isn’t that far from camp.

Entrance to Sweetwater Valley Farm

We pulled in and there was a large tour bus in the parking lot. Fortunately the group had gotten their own tour ahead of the one we planned on taking. We arrived early enough that we could check out the large barn where the tours start from but there is also a cafe and lots of souvenirs. Another building nearby houses the cheese shop which has a nice selection of cheeses.

Main Visitor Barn

Impressive Roof Framing

Cheese Store

Our tour included 18 or so other visitors and the farmer giving the tour. This is a family run business and has been in the family since the late 1980’s. They have roughly 1500 cows. The facility they show on the tour is the robotic milking building. It’s a very large building - approximately 500 feet by 125 feet and covering 1.25 acres.

Robotic Milking Facility

Inside is where the magic takes place. Each of the several hundred cows in this building wear a high tech necklace. It first of all identifies each cow to the robotic equipment as well as keeps tabs on some of its health information. These cows never leave the barn to graze in fields. Instead, they have their food and bedding and can walk over to the robotic milking machine whenever they want and be milked.

Owner Explains How Cow Collar Works with Robot

There are large windows at each of the milking stations. When a cow enters, it is identified and the robot first uses water and brushes to clean its udders, then the suction system attaches and the cow is milked. While this is taking place, the cow is presented with some treats which incentivizes them to come into the milking stations. Apparently some of the cows abuse the system just to get treats so the software recognizes these offenders and doesn’t always provide the treats. If an unhealthy cow is on some sort of drugs for an ailment, the system knows this and will still milk the cow but will not send it along to the main holding tank and is discarded. This was a very fascinating thing to watch and hear about.

Robotic Milker Does Its Thing

Inner Workings of a Milker

Another window looks over the main living area. It looks quite crowded compared to what we typically see with a huge field of cows out grazing on the land. It sounds like from a production standpoint, this system produces more milk per cow than typical dairy farming. It is weird since we saw no human intervention except for a service guy checking out one of the robotic milkers.

Cows Inside Facility

We had found a few other things to see in this part of Tennessee and headed next to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. We had stopped here to wander the grounds with the help of an Adventure Lab explaining some of the outdoor exhibits.

Sequoyah Birthplace Museum

Blacksmith Shop

Cherokee and British Soldier

It is dedicated to a Cherokee member who lived in the late 1700’s to mid 1800’s and is credited with producing the written Cherokee language. We didn’t feel the need to head into the museum.

Inside Log Cabin

Main Museum Building

Just a couple miles from this stop on the same island is the Fort Loudoun State Historic Park. This place explains the history of this fort built by the British way back in 1756. There is a large visitor center and the reconstructed fort on the tip of the island overlooking the Little Tennessee River.

Entrance to Fort Loudoun State Historic Park

There were school buses in the parking lot when we first arrived and we could hear the children from a distance as we approached the visitor center. It looked like they were just getting ready to leave so we sat on a bench overlooking the river and enjoyed the view while the children left. Inside the now quiet museum were lots of displays and a couple of workers that looked like they had just experienced a whirlwind.

Inside Museum Building

We exit the back of the visitor center and walk the path towards the fort. A wooden fence circles the perimeter of the large fort.

Approaching Fort

Most of the dozen or so buildings are open and have various displays depending on what its function was during the fort’s operation.

Row of Buildings Inside Fort

Storage Room

We enjoyed wandering around and learning about how the soldiers lived back in pre-Revolutionary War times. We were happy that our timing was such that the place wasn’t overrun by dozens of schoolchildren.

Quiet at Fort Loudoun Today

Our nine nights in Tennessee were coming to an end. We’ve spent a great deal of times in the Appalachian Mountains over the years but most of the time on the North Carolina side. We could see coming back to this region again for more hiking and exploration since a week wasn’t enough time to see it all. But now we need to head south into Georgia.