Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Baskins Creek Trail and Grapeyard Ridge Trail to Campsite 32

I went for a solo hike today in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was my first solo hike in quite some time as I've been spending a lot of time hiking with my girls. While I missed their company, it was good to go a little farther and hike a little faster. I started my hike off of the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail at the Baksins Creek Trailhead.

The trail did not start off as I had anticipated it would. I figured it would descend to Baskins Creek immediately, but instead it ascended to a dry ridge before making the descent. There was a lot of rhododendron in bloom along the trail.

I also lots of mushrooms

and other assorted fungi.

When the trail finally descended, it followed Baskins Creek rather closely.

I took a side trail

to the Baskins Creek Cemetery

and then continued along the creek to another side trail that led to Baskins Falls.

The falls were not particularly high, but they still made for a nice place to rest and enjoy a snack.

After admiring the falls I headed back to the main trail, an old road.

It led to another cemetery

and shortly thereafter to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. I crossed Roaring Fork

on a bridge and investigated a few old buildings including a cabin,

barn, and corn crib.

In the corner of the field that surrounds the buildings is the western trailhead for the Grapeyard Ridge Trail.

This is where I would continue my day's hike.

I have to admit that I did not find Grapeyard Ridge to be the most exciting trail I've ever hiked. I saw some animal life in the form of a doe deer

and butterfly.

I also saw some pretty red flowers in bloom

near one of the streams I crossed.

Mostly, it was just a walk to enjoy the woods and get a section of trail done that I had not walked before. I had walked the eastern edge of the trail to Campsite 32 back in March, but needed this 4.4 mile section to complete the entire length.

I stopped at the campsite,

ate a good snack and then headed back on the trail I had just walked. The hiking went fast. I passed through a section of trail surrounded by the trail's namesake grape vines

and soon found myself back at the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. I walked the road back to my car and found it to be impressively steep. I got a nice view of the surrounding mountains at one of the overlooks

and was soon back at the car.

Greeneville Astros vs. Elizabethton Twins at Pioneer Park

We finally made it out to a Greeneville Astros game! Tonight was our first Astros game and Sierra's first baseball game ever. I think she enjoyed it. We arrived at the park and bought our tickets.

We entered the stadium, received our free umbrellas (luckily we did not need them tonight), and then walked around the stadium a bit.

After getting our bearings, we got hotdogs at the concessions stand. Sierra enjoyed hers with some ketchup.

After eating our dinner, we made our way to our seats in the General Admission section.

Really there's not a bad seat in the house.

Noelle and I enjoyed the game which ended with a spectacular diving catch, and Sierra enjoyed the mascot Gizmo. She was great throughout the whole game but I am glad we brought her some of her trains to play with. We really enjoyed our evening

and will be back at some point to see another Astros game!

Erwin Linear Trail: TN Highway 107 to Northern Terminus

Sierra and I gave Noelle some time alone to work on her thesis by heading over to Erwin to walk another section of the Linear Trail. When we arrived in town it started to rain and so we killed some time by eating lunch at Subway. By the time we were finished eating the rain had moved away and we were ready to do some walking.

The walk started out by heading under the Highway 107 underpass near McDonalds. We then headed to a section of trail that led past a few ponds filled with Canada geese.

Besides the geese we saw some ducks and a great blue heron as well.

After the ponds we headed to a not-so-scenic section of trail that very closely paralleled Interstate 26.

We did manage to see a few trains which Sierra greatly appreciated.

She is very much into trains all of a sudden. The trail ended at a small family cemetery called the Booth Cemetery.

We quickly checked it out and then headed back to the car.

On the way back we took a detour on a side trail through the middle of two ponds

on a dirt trail.

We turned around and were greeted by more geese when we returned to the main trail.

Shortly after hitting the main trail we found ourselves back at the car for the drive home to Greeneville.

Jefferson National Forest: Falls of Little Stony

Yesterday, after our adventure at Natural Tunnel State Park, we headed east into Jefferson National Forest and the Bark Camp Campground. We set up our new tent and had some time to kill before dinner. We
decided to take a walk over to the nearby Bark Camp Lake.

Sierra insisted on walking on her own and was a real chatterbox. She kept talking about the train we had seen earlier in the day and the train tracks. Then she kept saying how it "smells good'. After saying "smells good" three times, Noelle finally decided to ask her what it was that smelled good. Sierra replied that it was "trees"! That's my girl! We walked along the lake shore, past a whole lot of fishermen and fisherwomen, and then headed back to our campsite via the roads

for playing

and dinner.

It took Sierra a while to get to sleep last night. She seemed really excited about our day hiking and camping. Despite the fact that she got to bed late, she was up early this morning and ready for a hike. After packing up camp, we hit the road and headed over to the nearby northern trailhead for the Little Stony National Recreation Trail. As we got our stuff ready for the hike, Sierra was obviously excited.

She kept saying "camping and hiking"! We finally got her into the backpack and hit the trail

close to the cascading Little Stony Creek.

I didn't realize it, but we had started from the trailhead that gets you close to the falls quickly.

After crossing over a sturdy wooden footbridge,

we found ourselves at the Upper Little Stony Falls.

There was a set of stone stairs that led down to the base of the falls. We went down and admired the view

for a few minutes before returning to the main trail.

Back on the trail, we soon crossed over another couple of bridges

and then found ourselves at a nice view of the Middle Little Stony Falls.

We kept on the trail, headed downstream, eventually arriving at a nice set of cascades.

We stopped there and let Sierra out of the back pack for a little play time. Then we headed down the trail a little bit further.

Parker seemed to be getting a bit tired at this point, and so the decision was made to turn around. We went back to the cascades we had stopped at earlier for a snack and more play time,

before making the short, uphill climb back to the car along the cascading Little Stony Creek.

Natural Tunnel State Park

The Grunwald's camping adventure weekend begins! This morning after breakfast we packed up the car with all of our camping gear and headed north through Kingsport into Virginia. Our first stop was Natural Tunnel State Park. We pulled into the parking lot near the visitor center and relaxed in the shade

as we ate a snack to prepare for our walk on a few short trails. Sierra was excited by a train right in the parking lot.

We walked over to it to have a look.

Then we got out the back pack for our hike.

The first trail we hiked led to a nice overlook of the tunnel.

The natural tunnel

(Really a cave) is over 800 feet long and naturally carved out of limestone by carbonic acid water. From the short overlook trail we hiked a short trail over to Lover's Leap. There is, of course, a legend of forbidden love between Native Americans that leads to a tragic leap off the tall precipice here. We admired the nice view

and then returned to the parking area, passing a few flowers in bloom.

From the parking area we found the trail that led down into the gorge, past an unnatural tunnel,

and to the opening of the Natural Tunnel.

A railroad actually uses the tunnel for freight traffic and so there are railroad tracks passing through it. Obviously, with trains moving through the tunnel, it is not possible to walk inside of it. We admired the large, impressive entrance and then headed over to the Carter Cabin.

The Carter Cabin was built in the 1700s and moved to its current site in 1997. We had a passerby take a family photo there,

relaxed a bit,

and then headed back up out of the gorge. The trail was steep, but not too long. Parker was the only one who seemed to have trouble with the ascent (he's getting old). Our hike was certainly better than taking the chairlift. After arriving back at the car we headed over to the picnic ground and playground for a snack and a little play time. Then it was on to the campground for Sierra's first camping experience!