Vacation Part 10 - Chained Rock

I think this is the last vacation post!

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things but I think I got all the big ones.

On our way home we made a stop at Pine Mountain State Resort Park.

It's just outside of Pineville, Kentucky.

Truthfully, we thought there was a lake here.

We were wrong. It was still a good side trip.

It was supposed to be a quick stop to stretch our legs.

One hot hike and an hour later we were back on the road.

:)

Beautiful.

  

This is half of the town of Pineville.

It's one of our favorite towns to go through on our Tennessee trips.

It has a flood wall with gates around it.

The town itself sits below the highway in a bowl.

Kind of like New Orleans only in the mountains.

I like to pass through but I don't think I could ever live there!

We usually stop at the Little Caesar's that's at one end of the town.

.

We've read about the chained rock that's in the park.

Since we were there we decided to hike to it.

hehe

Lots of steps.

Lots of water trickling on and beside the trail.

Lots of rocks.

Did I mention the rocks?

Oh and there was lots of heat too!

The trail got a little vague at one point.

We did figure it out.

There was a little climbing involved...but not here.

Had you scared didn't I!

This is rock has an interesting story.

  

You can see this rock when you go around Pineville if you know where to look.

Yes, there are signs telling you not to climb the chain.

I wasn't tempted to.

Another view of Pineville.

So that's our "quick" little trip to the chained rock.

Vacation Part 3 - Eagle Falls

We have been going to Cumberland Falls State Resort Park for years.

We have always hiked the short trail to the big falls.

We've even hiked to the end of the easy trail.

On that hike you can see people across the river high up looking down.

We tried to do the hike last year but the parking was full by the trail head.

So we tried again this year.

The hike is rated as moderate.

There are lots of steps, rocks, cliffs, etc.

It was a more strenuous hike than we're used to but we lived.

I may have tripped more times than we cared to count.

Okay, we quit counting after 5.

Not sure why I kept falling but at least I didn't fall off a cliff!

I earned the nickname "Tumbleweed".

It was rightly earned.

:)

In the end the hike was worth it.

This post has lots of pictures!

Very important to take a photo of the trail map!

We hiked trail 9.

One of the few flat portions of the hike.

Several places along the trail were under edges of large boulders.

This one was trickling water.

This is looking up.

You can't really tell the steepness of the trail.

We didn't carve it but it happened to be our initials.

That's the cliff edge.

Breathtaking view!

Oh look, stairs going down. How nice!

...going back up, not so much.

We thought this rock formation looked like an ear.

Walking on boulders.

Cumberland Falls from the far side of the river.

We're usually on the left side of this photo.

Those rafts were tiny from way up high!

Millipede!

The rock wouldn't budge.

Near the falls was this rock puddle with tadpoles.

Several were clinging to the stick.

This is Eagle Falls.

So worth the hike.

In certain spots you could feel the spray.

It felt great on such a warm day!