Tennessee - Franklin

The Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge is located northwest of the historic town of Franklin, Tennessee. The bridge was completed in 1993. The deck is supported by the bridge's cathedral arch design. The minimalist design has won multiple awards.

West Tennessee - Like the Big South Fork of the Cumberland

Natchez Trace State Park,  Tennessee

The Natchez Trace State Park is in West Tennessee west of Nashville and East of Memphis.  The place has an awful history.  The land was ravaged resulting in deforestation of the land.  The area is similar to the area of the the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River.

The road system inside the Park is extensive and impressive.  The Park has multiple lakes.  There are forested areas now.  The quality of the forested areas is less than many sites.  Great areas are taken over by kudzu vines.

The Park has many quiet places.

Walking in

Woodland - Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

As John Muir wrote that going out was in fact going in there are special places in the East worth appreciating and preserving for this experience of going in.  The Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama is a very special place.  Most of Kentucky east of I-75 is Cumberland Plateau woodland.  Is it a mystical place?  It be can be.

Thin places - the Smoky Mountains

Horace Kephart wrote of the Smoky Mountains in Our Southern Highlanders.

"Characteristic, too, is the dreamy blue haze, like that of Indian summer intensified, that ever hovers over the mountains, unless they be swathed in cloud, or, for a few minutes, after a sharp rain-storm has cleared the atmosphere. Both the Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains owe their names to this tenuous mist. It softens all outlines, and lends a mirage-like effect of great distance to objects that are but a few miles off, while those farther removed grow more and more intangible until finally the sky-line blends with the sky itself."
 - Horace Kephart

The Smoky Mountains - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We have some of the most beautiful places in our valleys and mountains.  Thin places are places where it is said that the boundary between earth and heaven is a thinner boundary.

The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

Big South Fork NRRA - Kentucky and Tennessee

The Big South Fork NRRA is located in McCreary County, Kentucky and Fentress, Pickett, and Scott Counties in Tennessee.  The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located in Blount, Sevier and Cocke Counties in Tennessee and Swain and Haywood Counties in North Carolina.  A  study of the plants living in the Big South Fork NRRA found a greater variety of plants living in the Big South Fork NRRA in comparison to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The rock shelters and the temperatures of the Big South Fork NRRA may provide a greater variety of  habitats than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  If the Star Trek transporter were available to me I would probably choose the the Great Smoky Mountains.  If I must drive myself I would be happy to go to the Big South Fork.  The thought of leaving today buoys my heart.  I have seen Twin Arches in the Big South Fork NRRA; the scenery there makes Big South Fork NRRA trip worthy.  Both the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Big South Fork NRRA have their beauty.  And two parks complement each other; one straddles the Tennessee border with Kentucky and one straddles the Tennessee border with North Carolina.  The story of Big South Fork NRRA and the surrounding Daniel Boone National Forest is a story of redemption.  These were once ugly places and they have been transformed.  Now they are appealing places.

 

Beauty in West Kentucky

    



The Rustic National Park Sign

 

My journey took me to Middle Tennessee and West Kentucky. The Welcome Center on the Southbound side of I-65 in Portland, Tennessee is an inviting building. The windows look like a fort from a bygone era.  There was much rain and dark clouds and I was enjoying my time anyway.

In Franklin, Kentucky there is a store with various old household items. The collection of the previously owned items collected from estates and similar sources is an interesting collection. If anyone wants a group of buttons in a Mason jar they have the jars. No two buttons are the same so if you are looking for five buttons of the same design you are stymied.

One of the largest features in Mammoth Cave National Park is the Green River. If you are exploring the surface you will eventually see the Green River. If you have seen the Cumberland River or the Rockcastle River the Green River will be a disappointment. The Green River looks thick with silt in the water. The look is not an appealing look.

Turn a corner on one of the trails in Mammoth Cave National Park and you will see a tree that is so tall you can scarcely tilt your head up enough to see the crown. Some of Kentucky's tallest trees are found in this beautiful park.

Though the Mammoth Cave area is hilly there is nothing that could be thought of as mountains. Though going there is not going to the mountains going there is going to a wild profusion of living plants.

When John Muir was 13 he lived in rural Wisconsin. He went from an obscure farm life to become an explorer, an essayist and one of America's best read writers. The following passage from John Muir fits this special Kentucky place.

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life."

Green leaves - a miracle

 

 

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh

This image is from the Cumberland Trail in Tennesse where there are steep rock outcrops and wind swept bluffs.

Those who mourn

From the Cumberland Trail, Tennessee

Going out into the woods is a solace for those who mourn. The experience of trees is a solace to those with unrequited grief.  There are real benefits to the act of going into the woods for the person that is mourning. The act of taking steps on the soil is a productive activity. When the leg holds up the body the earth provides the structure that helps the person that is walking. For those who mourn this can be a path to a better outlook. 
   
This image is from the Cumberland Trail near I-75 in Tennessee.  Along the Cumberland Trail there are steep rock outcrops and wind swept bluffs.

 

 

Everyone Can Benefit

Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

There are two benefits to getting out.  First you can keep off unwanted pounds and feel better.  But there is a lot more that happens.  There is the spiritual.  The writings of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir say this with great clarity. 

The picture is from the road to the parking area for the Chimney Tops trail on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  This was a December day in the National Park. There was snow on the ground and in the tree branches.   The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the nation.