Fall Creek Falls

Today was another beautiful day. Highs were in the upper 70's and the lows last night were in the low 50's. There were a few clouds in the sky but it was mostly sunny.

We went to Falls Creek Falls state park. It is only 30 miles from us.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_Creek_Falls_State_Park ) This weekend is the Mountaineer Folk Festival. We got there early, around 10 AM and that was good because the people were pouring in as we were leaving. There were a LOT of craft booths at the festival, some things interesting but most not so much. I did like the tee shirt on the Indian looking guy who was selling some type of woodwind instruments. Actually I didn't see it but Kathy told me it read something like, "Wonder if the government lies, ask an Indian."

Some things that caught my eye, and wallet, was the people deep frying pork rinds for cracklins. I can just feel the grease clogging my arteries from all that I eaten so far, and I still have a bag of each to go.  You had to stand in line to buy the cracklins, they couldn't make them fast enough, and there were several groups of guys making them.

We taste tested several different flavored cider drinks. Kathy bought a bottle, looks just like a wine bottle, of Rock Pile Farms Muscadine Cider, bottled in Tracy City, TN.

We didn't stay long enough for the ice cream to be ready, but we did watch them filling the freezers, and we saw the engine turning the freezers. There were two 5(?) gallon freezers. You can see one to the right in the photo below. The other was directly behind it. Both were run by the engine on the left.

This blacksmith brought his forge and was hammering away. There was another blacksmith working in a encampment where all the men were wearing kilts. In that encampment the ladies were cleaning carrots for lunch. There was also a guy in the encampment with a good sized (15#?) chunk of meat on a spit over an open fire. I didn't think about taking any photos of the the encampment.

Upon leaving the festival area we went over to the parks Inn/Restaurant/Conference Center and had lunch. We ate off the buffet and it was OK, nothing remarkable, but nothing bad. The bad part was the incredibly ugly concrete monstrosity that some lunatic architect came up with for the complex. How he sold the idea to anyone but a blind man is beyond me.

After lunch we went sight seeing in the park. We first went to Fall Creek Falls. It is the highest falls east of the Rockies, a 256' drop. There wasn't much water going over the falls today. I got the photo below from the Internet. There were fences/railing to keep people from falling into the gorge

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We continued our drive around the park and stopped along one of the park roads and walked down to a scenic overlook. No fences, no gates, nothing. It was great, a place! A place virtually untouched by the hand of nanny state government. People were actually expected to be responsible for themselves and their safety. What an incredibly novel idea. And yes you could walk right up to the edge, and over the edge, if you so desired.

Next we went to Piney Falls. The water drop is only 95' but there was more water. The interesting thing at Piney Falls is the suspension bridge, and getting to the bridge. Look at who walked across the suspension bridge!

Lest you think the bridge wasn't high, below is a photo taken over the side of it. The photo really doesn't show how far down it was to the water, maybe 70'.

And lest you think it was a short bridge see below.

The horizontal distance between the parking lot and the bridge wasn't all that far but the vertical distance allowed us to get in our cardio exercise for the day. Below Kathy starting the climb back up to the parking lot.

And up she went. 5-10' feet off the sides of the path were sheer drops down to the bottom of the gorge.



Kathy named this rock outcrop the Trolls Toes. You can see part of the path going down if you look over the top of the Trolls Toes.

And up some more. 

Kathy built a fire and Tom, Mary Lou & Wendy came down to roast hot dogs. It was the first time we have been able to have a campfire since we have been down here.

We have had a very good day.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.