If you live in the so-called "Golden Corner" of South Carolina, or in a neighboring area, and you haven't visited Yellow Branch Falls, you should. If you are able to make the 1.5-mile hike to the falls, you should go now, right now. This waterfall is one of the best waterfalls I've seen in hikes around my area. In fact, I drove over three hours to revisit this place when I had some vacation time.
Monday, July 15
Ok, so I have a few days vacation, and I decide to do a little hiking in areas I've never been. Thinking back to a hike I took with my wife in Kentucky, I decided that state might be a good place to go. It's just an hour or so north, and there's the Daniel Boone State Park, where that last hike had been.
Sunday, March 11
So, the last time I took this hike was during the summer. It's a nice little hike, and could even be longer, time permitting. It goes along the shore of Norris Lake, on the east side of the dam. It's composed of a bunch of small interlocking trails that allows the hiker to tailor their trip to the amount of time available. I didn't have the opportunity to spend a long time out there, so I just took a few trails and headed back.
Wednesday, June 21
This is just a quick set of shots from a hike up along the lakeside in Norris Dam State Park. There are a series of trails on the coastline that weave among themselves and I just chose a path. The set of trails I chose stayed in the vicinity of the east campground and was just a couple of miles or so.
Sunday, April 16
I wanted to return to the River Bluff Trail, up near Norris Dam, but this time, I wanted to arrive in time to view the wildflowers. Last time I had gone, I had gotten there too late to view the wildflowers in bloom. This time, it was late March when I headed out on a chilly spring morning, and I fully expected to see at least a few flowers starting to come up.
Tuesday, March 14
It has been a very long time since I have been able to post to this blog. It's been a crazy year and some. Some good things and some challenging things have taken over my life. But, I've slowly started getting back out to the mountains of Tennessee and taking pictures. This week, I had taken a couple of days off from work and spent one of those days up in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
Saturday, July 23
As the seasons moved on to spring, I was looking for a new hike. After looking through some of the hikes listed in Outdoor Knoxville, I saw the River Bluff Trail, which winds along the western side of the Clinch River, just south of Norris Dam. The description mentioned this as a great opportunity to see spring wildflowers. Wildflowers are always good subjects for photographs, so that seemed like a perfect idea.
Monday, May 30
Back in early February, I decided to give the Loyston Point Recreation Area a try. There are a few trails on this peninsula that extends out into the Clinch River, most of which are multi-use (hiking and mountain biking). It was a chilly morning, but I headed off to hike the Loyston Loop Trail, a 5.4-mile trail that winds around a hill in the northwest part of the peninsula, passing by the river as it goes north, before looping back.
Sunday, May 15
This hike was taken some time ago, back the winter, but I've had less time to hike and/or work with the photos, so I'm only now posting them. During last winter, I went up to Frozen Head State Park, which is northwest of Knoxville, past Oak Ridge. One of the more interesting parts of the drive up to this park is that as you get closer, you pass an incarceration facility. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is a little odd to pass by fences and barbed wire just before you head out into the park to hike the trails.
Sunday, February 28
I discovered this gem during the late winter of 2015, and I've been back multiple times. As I made the trek back and forth between Knoxville and South Carolina, to finish the move, I passed the sign for the Seven Islands State Birding Park. The sign was just off of I-40, about 20 minutes from Knoxville. The sign indicated hiking, and I kept figuring that I'd give it a look. But it took some months before I went out there.
Sunday, February 14
A colleague of mine at the University of Tennessee, another hiking enthusiast, let me know about the House Mountain State Natural Area. This mountain, with a network of easy or strenuous trails, is just 8 miles northeast of Knoxville. Since I currently live in the northeastern area of Knoxville, it's right nearby.