ESCAPING THE FLATWOODS
It had rained the day before and predicted scattered showers for this day. We had a friend who was local to the area guiding us around. She had an itenerary planned. She met us at our campsite and from right there the adventure began.
The first two waterfalls were at Ferne Clyffe State Park, where we were camping. Up first was Ferne Clyffe Falls. We drove to the trailhead, near the campground and hiked the trail to the fall. The Big Rocky Hollow Trail was easy and scenic. There are several rock bluffs as well as creeks\streams. It was a one way, half-mile trail. It leads directly to the fall with a captivating view of it from a distance.
With the recent rainfall, it was flowing nicely. The pool area in front of it wasn’t full, so we was able to walk out in front of the fall. Seasonally, I am sure this fall varies enough to keep locals coming back to check it out. It was a cool waterfall and throughout the week it seen it’s share of visitors.
Next up for us though was the nearby Borks Falls. It is also within the park. We made the short drive around to it. With the rainfall, the road was covered by the creek that fed this fall. Locals drive over it. These flatwooders in a 2wd truck didn’t dare to try. Our local guide laughed at us a little but reassured us we could park right where we was and led us down the very short bluff trail to an eye catching view of the waterfall from the rim area of the bluff. We confess, we are not big risk takers and we respect heights enough to want to stay on the topsides. The trail just seemed a bit too close to the edge for us flatlanders. Borks Falls was a beauty though!
We was on a quest though, so off we went to Burden Falls in the wilderness of the Shawnee National Forest. Burden Falls was breathtaking! Actually the trail that lead away from the main fall to a couple other viewable falls was breathtaking. I had to stop and remind myself to breathe, shut my eyes and slowly turn around to go back towards the larger trail area near Burden Falls. It got so narrow and the drop was so steep that I could not take another step. Once again, our local guide got tickled by us.
We enjoyed Burden Falls and the beautiful Red Buds in bloom nearby.
Keeping on task, we was off to Dixon Springs State Park to view the Dixon Springs Waterfall. It was a man made waterfall around a dam area. It was still an eye catcher and the sound of this waterfall was intense.
We left there with our waterfall chasing done for the day. We took the time to stop on our way back to our campground at the Cache River State Natural Area to check out the State Champion Tupelo. It is part of the Section Eight Woods. They had great information at their kiosk as well as on the boardwalk for the Tupelo. It was worth the stop. We didn’t realize they had swamps like back home, here. They were just missing some gators.
Our day winded down with us driving back to camp looking at and comparing all of our cool photographs. We discussed our plans because we still had 2 more days with Annie as our guide, so tomorrow was Day 2 with Annie’s Adventures.
FLATWOODERS 