The Sacred Journey

Olmsted Park Iroquois Park - Louisville, KY

The light comes to the one who is awake to the light's coming.

What I Saw - Eastern Red Cedar

Woods - Sisters of Loretto Farm, Marion County, KY

The shape of the branches coming from the trunk of this cedar holds an appeal.  The coating of snow is a part of its noble presence.  The specific appearance of the cedar is something to appreciate. 

What I Saw - trees

Vista - Lake Cumberland State Park - Winter Season

After the fall colors the deciduous trees lose most of their leaves.  Some would characterize the look as barren. Others would say that the evergreens are more noble growing amongst their surrounding deciduous trees.

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.

What I saw - Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

Trail along the shore of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River - Devils Jump passage

In Kentucky in the Big South Fork Fork NRRA there are narrow places where the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River has rapids.   The sound of the river echoes through the woods along the river's path.   This is a place of amazement. This place brings healing to the wandering and tired soul.

"There is a love of wild Nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties."

John Muir

Nature's seasons

Woods North of the Green River Mammoth Cave NP - Hart County, Kentucky

Southern Magnolia - Marion County - Kentucky

American Holly - Loretto, Kentucky

Sometimes after the leaves are off of the trees the color of the woods looks gray.  In some regions the color is a deep green because of the pine trees.  In Kentucky there are American holly trees and magnolia trees that have full leaves and green color.  The trees here were fully green after the neighboring maples and oaks had their leaf color turned to brown.  Sometimes there is something to appreciate like a lotus flower that becomes revealed after awhile.  Even in places removed from the lands of lotus flowers.

North American Native Tree - Sycamore

Woods - Sycamore - Grayson County, Kentucky

The bark of the sycamore tree falls to the ground around the tree.  This large section of sycamore bark was caught in the branches of a small tree.  

Kentucky native tree and Thomas Merton

Kentucky Native Tree - Eastern Red Cedar - Grayson County

The trunk of the Eastern red cedar looks like of bundle of stems.  Eastern red cedar was once the only wood used for pencils in the United States.  By the 1940s it was hard to find enough trees to supply the factories and production switched to the California incense cedar, Calocedrus decurrens.  The California incense cedar is a western tree.

Thomas Merton visited the Motherhouse at Loretto, Kentucky.  During his visit he remarked that the trees surrounding the Motherhouse were magnificent and should never be felled. Thomas Merton wrote frequently of the silence of the woods in his writings.  He also suggested that being present in the woods was helpful to prayer and to the spiritual experience. 

Merton wrote pointedly about damage to the natural world, "Much of the stupendous ecological damage that has been done in the last fifty years is completely irreversible.  Industry and the military, especially in America are firmly set on policies that make further damage inevitable."

Merry Christmas

What do the hallowed hills of Kentucky have to do with Christmas?  One story I know is about the John B. Stephenson Nature Preserve in Rockcastle County.  I met a woman there in the valley.  I asked her about how she felt about this Kentucky place.  She said that she went to school there and she motioned to the ridge to the left of where we were standing.  She said that as a girl she came down into the woods to gather vines and branches to make decorations for Christmas.   That was many years ago. And the precious Kentucky woods are still there.   No work has marred the beauty of the woods.   So most every Kentucky place has many stories.  May it ever be so.

Southeast Kentucky

There is more to take in about South East Kentucky than delicious fried chicken.  Yes London does have a big chicken dinner in September built around the last weekend in September.  The festival boasts the biggest skillet in the country.  Late Fall and Winter is a good time to come to the Valley.
It is a time to move about without the worry of humid air or ticks or mosquitoes.  The beauty of the stream banks will come into you.  The music of the winds will come to your ears.  You will take back the sights and sounds and remember them.  You will appreciate them.

The Cumberland River - Southeast Kentucky

Appreciation of Mr. Olmsted

Mr. Olmsted said that Cherokee Park was meant to present the "bluegrass country of Kentucky" to the people of Louisville.

In a report from the F. L. Olmsted firm provided to the city in 1891, the site for Cherokee Park was described as a place of "refreshment that is to be had in the contemplation of superb umbrageous trees..."

 The Park has broad spaces that are kept mowed but also wide corridors of woods.   Beargrass Creek winds its way through the landscape lending the scene an inviting look.   There is a famous photograph of Big Rock in Beargrass Creek with park visitors in clothing of  a bygone era.  It may be 1890s clothing.  At the top of a bluff there is a statue of the Greek god Pan. The statue dates back to 1905.

Louisville Metro Parks - Cherokee Park - Pan

Cherokee Park - Limestone Cliffs

Cherokee Park - Cliffs

Cherokee Park - Informational

Cherokee Park - Beargrass Creek

Cherokee Park - Stonework on roadside wall

The limestone cliffs along the creek corridor are home to walking ferns and amphibians that need special conditions to live. The outstanding tree in the woods of Cherokee Park is the American beech.  The bark of the American beech unlike most Kentucky native trees grows with the internal structure of the tree.  Most trees shed portions of bark over time but the Americon Beech does not.

Kentucky Nature

Smoky Bridge- Waterfall Bridge

Box Canyon - Carter Caves Sandstone and Tygarts Creek Limestone

Carter Caves State Resort Park is located on the Western edge of the Cumberland Plateau in Carter County, Kentucky.  The feature called Natural Bridge is a natural limestone arch.  It bridges over Cave Branch in the park.

The feature known as Smoky Bridge is a large natural limestone arch similar to Natural Bridge.  Under the limestone of Smoky Bridge is a dry valley where Smoky Creek is located.  The stream bed flows after heavy storms.  Two springs supply water that runs under Smoky Bridge.  Smoky Bridge is considered to have formed by the waterfall arch process.

Cascades Cave is located in Cascade Caverns State Nature Preserve. This is an area in
Carter Caves State Resort Park.  It is well south of the park lodge but it can be accessed after a short drive.  In Cascades Cave a part of the cave named the “Cathedral Room” forms beneath several sinkholes.  The room contains a variety of columns, stalactites, straws and stalagmites.   Sinkholes above the “Cathedral Room” conduct surface water into cracksand crevices leading down into the “Cathedral Room.” These sinkholes have diverted a large amount of surface water into the cave,which has allowed a number of dripstone formations to form over the years.

Another cave in the Cascades Caverns area is called North Cave.  At one time the caves were competing for cave tour money.  Now the caves are operated by the state park.

Cascade Cave - Cathedral Room

Two state nature preserves are located in Carter Caves State Park.  One preserve is Bat Cave State Nature Preserve and one preserve is Cascade Caverns State Nature Preserve.  The set aside areas were designed to protect several rare and endangered species, including the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), mountain maple (Acer spicatum), and Canadian yew (Taxus canadensis).

In Cascades Caverns State Nature Preserve the beautiful Box Canyon Trail loops through a scenic canyon. The steep walls of the canyon are over 60 feet high. In places the walls meet at a nearly perfect ninety degree angle. The square corners and high vertical cliffs result from collapse of the sandstone along two sets of intersecting joints. The floor of the canyon has many large blocks of fallen sandstone from the sandstone unit.  The walls are composed of Carter Caves Sandstone or Tygarts Creek Limestone.

The Carter Caves Sandstone shows prominent cases of weathering.  Large areas of the rock show honeycomb weathering.

Going in

Carter Caves State Resort Park - Fall 2014 - Natural Bridge Trail

Lewis Caveland Lodge - Rooms

Reflections on the stream water at Natural Bridge

Scenic water at Natural Bridge

If one is to practice forest bathing then being in the natural world is required.  Carter Caves State Resort Park is located on the Western edge of the Cumberland Plateau in Carter County Kentucky. This location provides the conditions necessary for the possible presence of woods of the mixed mesophytic type.  Eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, is seen growing in the park.  Umbrella magnolia tree grows along the paths winding through the woods.

The park area was used for commercial purposes until the 1940s when it  was acquired in steps to create the 2000 acre state park of the present day.  The area was timbered until about the 1930s.  With the area being completely logged why visit?

The park is wonderland of natural beauty.  There are some large trees that likely escaped the cutting of the forest.  And the diversity of the forest now in the area and the boulders and steep cliffs make for a place of great appeal. 

Carter Caves State Resort Park - Palette of Fall Colors

 

Scenic cliffs

Turkey Run State Park, Indiana

 

 

This was the view somewhere in Turkey Run State Park in Indiana on an October day. The  rocks in this place seem to pull you toward them and to be an inspiration.  Rocky Hollow-Falls Canyon Nature Preserve, located within the Turkey Run State Park is a National Natural Landmark. The canyon contains forested areas of virgin beech-maple stands.  Some of the largest black walnut in the Midwest can be found in the gorges of Rocky Hollow-Falls Canyon. Steep sandstone gorges have eastern hemlocks and Canada yew in their valleys.  This sign describes the cliffs as dangerous and so they are if they are carelessly visited.  Perhaps a slow danger that escapes notice is our diet with chemicals present shown to be health risks. Perhaps a slow danger that escapes notice is the pounds and pounds of paint containing lead in the buildings we have to live in.  Perhaps a slow danger that escapes notice is the emission of compounds shown to be health risks.  Contaminants are  spread over the land from the tall smoke stacks of combustion sources operating in our region.  Going out and moving and seeing is the option for health especially where there are places so inspiring for us to see.

Olmsted Park - Iroquois Park

Iroquois Park Grassland at Sunset

Old tree - Iroquois Park

Frederick Law Olmsted said Iroquois was the nature preservation park of the park system.  The park has grasslands at the summit area.  Recently the park system has been presenting the park as the home of the "ten thousand year old forest."  Perhaps these mature trees on the uplands are hundreds of years old.  Sounds like it would be a good study for some of the eastern Native Tree Society members to try to measure the age of these trees.

Manmade Places

Cave Run Lake - Rowen County Kentucky

Natural lakes are unique; most lakes are made from human intervention.  In Kentucky Metropolis Lake is a natural lake.  Though manmade lakes were altered from the natural landscape they still offer a scenic beauty.  The rustic stairs built in the woods by the CCC artisans are much appreciated constructions.  Perhaps some of the scenic lakes can be viewed with the same appreciation.  These lakes were built and the result became something to be appreciated.

Looking skyward

Giant tree - Mammoth Cave NP

 

 

Trees work in associaton with fungi in their roots. They can send resources to their neighboring trees using the root network. They work quietly but work nonetheless. Their noble life can be an appreciation for our life. Some of Kentucky's tallest trees are found in Mammoth Cave NP. This is a beautiful park and its trees are especially appealing. 

 

"I sat on a little stool between my father's knees in the two-wheeled chaise he always drove. To my mind the whole earth spread out before me. My father pointed out the most striking trees as we passed them and told me how to distinguish their varieties. I do not think I ever afterward failed to know one forest tree from another . . . what struck me, perhaps most of all, he stopped his horse on top of a steep hill, bade me notice how the water there flowed in different directions, and told me such a point was called a watershed. I never forgot that word, or any part of my father's talk that day."

George Perkins Marsh

Near to the heart of the world

Towering Tree Growing in Mammoth Cave National Park

As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can. - John Muir

The land of Kentucky was once under the sea as evidenced by fossils present in Kentucky.  Natural Kentucky is filled with the sounds of winds and birds and water.

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."

Trees Gone

Cut Trees - Kentucky Road Southbound

Trees in Kentucky of more than one meter diameter should be considered special natural resources and kept from harm.  Ronald Jones writes this in Plant Life of Kentucky and explains the importance of protecting these mature trees to our environment.   The trees harvested and placed on this truck are large and some of them may exceed the diameter standard. 

John Muir wrote, "Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed -- chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones..."