We have been stopping at Cumberland Falls for many years.
The park itself is about 20 minutes from the interstate.
It's usually a brief visit to take a break from travelling.
We've always wanted to camp here and do more exploring.
We were not disappointed and hope to camp here again.
Cool Katydid.
This was our campsite.
There is a drop off immediately behind that rail.
This site had plenty of shade as well.
Our tent is on the large side at 10 ft. x 14 ft.
I'm glad I requested the larger campsite!
After we set up the tent we set up the laundry line.
Our swimming stuff was still damp from the night before.
If you look closely, you can just make out our laundry line on the left side of the tree.
It went from that tree to the railing.
More on that later.
The waterfall is a few minutes drive from the campground.
Here you can walk out to the river above the falls.
Looking toward the falls.
The excitement on their faces is astounding isn't it?
(Keeping it real.)
Ahh.. choo!
I take pictures of people taking pictures.
Oh, and look at that blue sky.
We didn't forget the falls!
This is one of our favorite places to visit.
They call it the Niagara of the South.
There's even a moonbow (a lunar rainbow).
They post a schedule of moonbow dates but we missed it by a couple of weeks.
I would really like to see that someday.
Dwayne's much better at taking a selfie shot than I am.
I guess you need long arms for that!
I never seem to look a the right spot either.
Because I'm me, I take pictures of just about everything...
including this sign reminding people that things are slippery when wet.
Ah common sense... where oh where art thou?
Alas, I did not see anyone making this awesome move.
Maybe they should put the same figure on a sign pointing to the bathroom!
As I've said we've been visiting these falls for many years.
We've always thought this rock looked like an alligator head.
We've decided to call it the "crock rock".
June 2018
I'm standing on some steps.
June 2012
The same spot but I'm looking up at the steps.
Look how little the boys are!
Due to time, this is usually as far as we go on this trail.
Since we were staying the night we decided to hike the whole thing.
After this point the river bends and you can no longer see the falls.
After the bend there is a beach.
Always fun to look at the water's edge.
This tree had another tree lodged in it from flooding.
This large bolder was at the end of the beach which also happened to be the end of the trail.
We made it to the end.
Then we noticed it was getting a little darker and could hear thunder.
Uh oh.
Did I mention we had walked to the end of the trail?
It started to rain.
It's hard enough to walk in sand.
It's even harder to walk fast in the sand and take pictures.
I was kind of lagging behind.
This is where that silly slippery when wet sign needed to be.
That rock between the steps is slanted... and a little slippery when wet.
:)
We walked and climbed up steps as fast as we could.
Our van was at the far end of the parking lot.
While we weren't soaked we were a little wetter than we liked.
On our way to the parking lot we remembered that all of the tent windows were open...
and our clothes were hanging on the line.
When we got back to our tent our clothes line was empty.
As we neared our tent we heard a voice from our neighbor's tent.
She said they grabbed our clothes and stashed it in our tent.
All the clothes and towels were dry! So thankful to have good neighbors. :)
Thanks to the trees and the rainfly the inside of the tent was dry too!
Turned out that was the only rain. The rest of it went around us.
We planned on another hike the next morning but the parking for that trailhead was full.
That trail is on the opposite side of the falls than we were and it's higher up.
We've added it to our list of things to do when we come back...
especially now that we know exactly where the trailhead is!
We really enjoy this park. It's one of our favorites.
