Sewanee Natural Bridge and Grundy Lakes State Park

Sherwood, TN and the Cumberland Plateau

A beautiful fall day is a great opportunity to explore the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. On this day we journeyed to the southern portion of the Plateau around the towns of Sewanee and Monteagle. The trees had yet to turn but the air was crisp and the skies were deep blue with nice fluffy clouds. Every direction you looked seemed like it would make for an awesome photograph.

Sewanee Natural Bridge

First stop was the Sewanee Natural Bridge which is located just south of Sewanee off State Route 56. There is a small parking area and a trail that descends down to the top of the bridge. The trail continues across the actual bridge and then descends further into a sinkhole. Note: While not particularly dangerous or strenuous, it is important to be careful as you cross the natural bridge and descend down in to the sinkhole.

The natural bridge is 25 feet high and spans almost 50 feet. A wet spring found here is believed to have slowly eroded away the sinkhole and formed the natural bridge. If you go under the bridge there is a short trail you can take to further observe nature's work with towering cliffs on one side and large boulders to scramble over or walk in between. Along the trail you can see limited views down in to Lost Cove which lies just below the natural bridge. Lost Cove is home to Buggytop Cave which has one of the most impressive cave entrances in the state. You can hike to Buggytop Cave by a trail that leaves the Carter State Natural Area just south of Sewanee Natural Bridge.

Found around the sinkhole are a number of carved signatures left by visitors long ago (some believed to have been left in the 1880s). According to an article on nooga.com, a historian researched the names and did not find that they were locals, thus indicating the natural bridge probably served as a popular roadside attraction for a number of years. The natural bridge would have been a relatively short detour off of US 41A. The area does seem relatively free of modern vandalism.

Climbing out of the sinkhole

Sewanee Natural Bridge is part of a larger collection of parks called the South Cumberland Recreation Area. In this system you will find canyons, waterfalls, lakes and caves to explore. Savage Gulf is one part of this system and you can check out a post we made about it here. Grundy Lakes State Park is another part of this system which we also visited on this day.

Grundy Lakes State Park

Grundy Lakes State Park

Near Tracy City, TN, you will find Grundy Lakes State Park. The area was devastated by coal mining and in the late 1930s the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) transformed the land in to what you see today complete with lakes, trails and trees. Almost of all of the natural beauty present here is thanks to the efforts of the CCC.

There are a few hiking trails here including a nice loop around the lake. The park also offers access to the lake for swimming and fishing. The remains of coal mining past are still seen all over the park as well. The most visible reminders are the 100+ coke ovens found along a number of the trails in the park.

Coke Ovens

The coke ovens were used to convert coal in to industrial coke that could then be used as fuel for the smelting of iron ore. Note: The main trail tends to take you behind the coke ovens. The view from here is less impressive as the openings tend to be much smaller. In a few places it's possible to actually walk in front of the ovens to see them like in the picture above. Also, in many places you'll notice that the trail itself consists of coal. It makes for an interesting crunching sound as you walk over it.

Coal on the trail

The Cumberland Plateau, while utterly beautiful, has been mined and clear-cut so often over the years that it's amazing there's anything of beauty left. Places like Grundy Lakes State Park remind us that beauty can be reclaimed from manmade devastation.  In a future post we'll highlight a little bit more about some of the mining operations on the plateau.

Wonder Cave

Finally, we decided to drive US 41 north to head back to Nashville. Doing this means taking a windy descent off the plateau. The road is particularly steep indicating the road was built before the more modern, and less steep, standards of today. At the foot of the plateau you'll find the old sign for Wonder Cave, a once popular tourist attraction that suffered with the advent of the interstate system.

Wonder Cave Entrance Building

A few years ago Jessica wrote a little post about Wonder Cave and we decided to take a quick swing by the old building. The place is locked up so you can't explore the property nor see the cave, but it was good to finally see the grounds in person. For years I have heard of Wonder Cave and while I've always had a deep fascination with caves, Wonder Cave is the only modern Tennessee commercial cave that I never got to visit. It would be great to one day explore the cave if it ever were to open back up.

South Cumberland State Recreation Area map

For more information about the South Cumberland State Park, including Sewanee Natural Bridge and Grundy Lakes State Park, check out their page here.

Nevada Ghost Towns

Matador Network / Photo: mtneer_man

Here at Southern Wanderings we'll sometimes cover places that are outside of the Southeastern United States. Ghost towns are one of those subjects and whenever we can find a link to a cool article or photos of such places we'll give it to you here.

Over at Matador Network they have a great photo trip through some Nevada ghost towns.  Nevada was a state that had thousands of mines and many of these mines had small towns that sprang up (almost overnight) to support the mines. Once these mines stopped operating, most of these towns became ghost towns literally overnight. The article starts off with a great fact (I'm assuming it's true since they used all capital letters for FACT):

FACT: There are more ghost towns in Nevada than towns occupied by the living. By that count, it would take you years, if not a lifetime, to explore all the ghost towns in the state.

Regardless of whether or not that's true there are a TON of ghost towns in Nevada and way too many to explore in a reasonable period of time. So Matador Network takes us through 6 of them with some cool photos and a little bit of text about each of these places.

Photo: TravelNevada

To check out this article, click this link.

About the first picture above - it's from Rhyolite, NV and it shows a creepy art exhibit created by Belgian sculptor Albert Szukalski in the 1980s. Seeing this would certainly make me think twice about exploring this ghost town.

Ghost Town Under the Lake

Credit: University of Nevada, Las Vegas University Libraries

Finally, another ghost town in Nevada, St. Thomas, has spent most of the last 70+ years under the waters of Lake Mead. Over the years the lake has dropped just enough to reveal the town. With the current extreme drought hitting the Southwest, this has happened once again. You can now tour this once thriving Mormon community by a new access trail built by the NPS. For more information, you can check out the National Park Service's page here.

The Road to Nowhere

The Road to Nowhere

On the eastern side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near the town of Bryson, NC, lies Lakeview Drive. The road winds its way through a section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along the northern shore of Fontana Lake. Eventually the road reaches a 1/4 of a mile long tunnel through a mountainside and then, just on the other side, the pavement stops. Lakeview Drive ultimately inherited the nickname "The Road to Nowhere" as a result.

The road was not intended to stop just beyond the tunnel. It wouldn't make sense to spend a great deal of money and manpower to build a road through the mountain only to have it stop on the other side, but that's exactly what ended up happening. So what happened here?

Lakeview Drive aka "The Road to Nowhere" ends at the Lakeshore Trail Trailhead

During World War II, the US Government and the Tennessee Valley Authority decided to dam up the Little Tennessee River for power generation. As the river descends out of the mountains, multiple little lakes were formed. Cool tip: one of these dams, Cheoah Dam near Deal's Gap, was used in the movie "The Fugitive". Harrison Ford takes a perilous leap off of this dam and magically survives.

"The Fugitive" - Little Tennessee River and the road to Deal's Gap seen in the background

Closer to Bryson City a more significant lake was formed called Fontana Lake. The valley the lake would flood was home to many residents of Swain County. The government bought some of this land, but it also took large swaths of private property forcing the residents to move out of the valley. The US government promised to replace the road that once ran through the valley with Lakeview Drive. This new road would serve one very important purpose for the local people of Swain County and that was to have access to cemeteries where their loved ones were buried.

Pavement is slowly deteriorating

Almost 6 miles of road were built, including a bridge and the tunnel, but the remaining distance (approximately 26 miles) were never built because of environmental issues that sprang up. In the end, a promise was broken and the Swain County residents would not have access to their ancestral cemeteries. The road became a huge sore spot to the people of Swain County and Bryson City. This sentiment is perfectly spelled out on a sign you'll see as you leave Bryson City - "Welcome to The Road To Nowhere, A Broken Promise!". It should be noted that the National Park Service does offer periodic ferry services across the lake to take families to these cemeteries. In 2000 there was a bill that funded the continuation of the road, but to do this date, no further construction has occurred.

Today, The Road to Nowhere serves as access in to the Smoky Mountains and a number of trails in the area can be found here. There are a few scenic overlooks that offers the usual views of hazy mountains, but with the added element of water down below in Fontana Lake. The tunnel itself is worth checking out and the drivable portion of Lakeshore Drive ends just before the tunnel. There's a large parking lot to accommodate the visitors to the tunnel. Throughout the tunnel you will find graffiti that visitors have left. This is another sore spot for Swain County and they are making attempts to work with the National Park Service to clean this up.

Looking out of the tunnel towards the terminus of Lakeview Drive

Bryson City is an interesting town worth visiting. There are some good restaurants to eat at (Everett St. Diner was very good) and it's also home to the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad that offers rail excursions down through the Nantahala Gorge. Bryson City also provides access to another section of the national park called Deep Creek. This area offers a few waterfalls and some nice hiking trails. You're also not all that far from the Nantahala Gorge which we highlighted in this post. Many visitors to the gorge stay in Bryson City since there are a limited number of options to stay in the gorge.

Tom Branch Falls found in Deep Creek

To Get There

You can access Lakeshore Drive from Bryson City, NC in Southwestern North Carolina. The road starts in town as Fontana Road. For more information about The Road To Nowhere and nearby Bryson City, check out this page.

Map of Southwestern North Carolina

Stunning Video of Fall in the Smokies

I've mentioned it before, but experiencing the Smokies in the fall is stunning. Photos barely do it justice. But this video does.  The use of time-lapse photography only adds to the amazing beauty presented here. 

The video comes from MTJP and they also have shot similar videos at many other national parks. They're all worth checking out.  To view this on Vimeo and to find links to their other national park videos, click here.