In July, the Beavers hit the road up to Knoxville, Tennessee area. Tiffany’s grandma lives up there, one of my college friends lives there, and some friends from our church in Columbia moved up there a few years ago to start a new church there. We were looking forward to our time in Knoxville, and since we were going to a new area, we wanted to check out some of the area parks.
What we learned, however, is that things don’t always go as planned.
To start with, the day that we were headed up to stay with her, my college friend let us know that one of her daughters had come down with a stomach bug. No worries, we thought, as we would just stay the night with Tiffany’s grandma.
Quick note before I get to the park discussion…I noticed that Tiffany’s grandma lived in an area where all the street names seemed indigenous. One word kept popping up as well: Tanasi. Then it hit me. That must be the origin of Tennessee’s name. After some digging, I realized that these were all Cherokee names, and I confirmed that this was indeed the origin of the state’s name.
So, we hit the road through the Cumberland Plateau area towards the unfortunately-named town of Wartburg, TN and surrounding area. It is home of the Obed Wild and Scenic River, the first park of this type for us. The park itself encompasses the Obed River and some surrounding tributaries.
The name Obed is perhaps due to the name of Obediah Terrill, a longhunter who passed through in the 18th century. Longhunters were European whites who came hunting animal skins and furs.
We ourselves never laid eyes on the Obed River itself, but we did see Clear Creek. The river system here is located deep within sandstone gorges, providing rafters and climbers alike something to enjoy. The river is free-flowing, meaning that it is not dammed at any point.
One thing we knew coming into today was that it was hot and muggy. It was already 80 degrees by 9 am, and the temperature only climbed from there. It would have been a beautiful day to splash in the river, but alas, our itinerary didn’t afford us this luxury. There were other places where we could have hiked, but given the temperatures, nothing extensive was in the cards today.
Our destination was Lilly Bluff, which is high above Clear Creek. The walk through the woods to the overlook was just going to be a couple of tenths of a mile. Not much time in the sun, short hike…perfect.
Well, go back to my note that the river is in deep gorges. As I’m driving through the mountains, I start noting that my car’s thermostat starts climbing higher, and then it would go back down again. Just what I needed, I thought. Not to worry my family, I didn’t say anything. But I knew that right before Lilly Bluff, we had a big descent down to the creek and then a big ascent to the other side. You better believe I was praying to make it out! Fortunately, my trusty 2002 Camry got us there safely.
When we parked, we saw some rangers there. We learned later that they were doing a program introducing people to climbing on the sandstone. Instead, we walked the short path to the overlook.
The views were great, and I can imagine that in fall, this area would be incredible. This area is also designated as an International Dark Sky Park, essentially indicating that star-gazing is incredible here.
But alas…young children who were getting hungry, two adults who were getting hot, and one car that was hopefully not going to get too hot meant that we needed to head out.
We went to downtown Wartburg, where the visitor center is. The girls did their Junior Ranger books, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the air conditioning.
Though I’m sure there’s much we could have done to have done this park justice, it’s what we were able to do today, and if we ever find ourselves back, there’s plenty more we can do! We’ll just make sure to have more time, a functioning car, and hopefully better weather.
I’ll continue our series of unfortunate events in the write-up of our next park that we headed to: Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Click below for a few more pictures of our visit!
Beavers in the Park 