Labor Day Hiking Trip - Day 1:
Cummins Falls / Fall Creek Falls
(Tennessee / North Carolina / Georgia)
Hello my fellow travelers.
Glad to be back with a new series of blog post.
Just hoping everyone is still doing well and safe out there in the world,
lately I know I have been taking care of myself and I'm getting back to feeling a bit normal around here,
things have gotten better with the quarantine and restrictions over here in Miami,
while we still have some cases going around everything is starting to re-open again as it used to be.
This year was basically impossible to do any hiking trips or any trip in specific since most
of the states were having restrictions were you flying in or driving around the states or cities.
Also, this summer went by so fast that I don't remember feeling like I did anything,
I had many places I wanted to visit in the summer but due to Covid it was impossible to travel.
After summer I was already researching for any hiking trip to do around the country, however,
I needed to stay on top of the news for the states that were opening and taking off their
restrictions based on the cases they had so I could choose a state to visit.
Honestly, for the past couple of months I have been missing going out there on the road
and trails to do any hikes, and that's I have been thinking about since this whole pandemic started.
Labor Day Weekend was coming up and since I knew I had an extra day off from work,
I thought this was a great chance to escape from everything and plan a hiking trip ahead.
I told Damian and friend from work Ricardo which was an enthusiastic hiker and
right away they were on board with making this hiking trip happen.
On late August we started sketching out this hiking trip and we came up with the idea
of doing a roadtrip on different states that were accessible and close to Florida.
We came to the conclusion that we would roadtrip to Tennessee all the way down
between North Carolina, and passing through Georgia to end this trip, it was a great idea!
On a Friday afternoon we pack our hiking backpacks and set our GPS to Cummins Falls and
Fall Creek Falls as our first waterfalls and states parks to visit on this roadtrip.
In case you guys didn't know Tennessee is just about 13-14 hour drive from Miami,
so this was going to be a long long roadtrip, the great thing is that we were all taking turns on
driving and the extra person would sleep and rest until it was his turn again later on,
this strategy worked very well for us and this way we were not stopping too much.
Early Saturday morning we arrived to Cummins Falls State Park before the park was even open,
and it gave us some time to eat some breakfast and get prepared to gear up and hike.
Cummins Falls is a 3-mile roundtrip hike to the waterfall itself,
you'll start by purchasing the permits online while you stay in line to go inside the trail,
the trail is very moderated and heavily crowded in the afternoon mostly.
You'll first get a glance of fall at the main lookout which from here is a gorgeous and amazing view,
I snapped many pictures on this lookout, and you can just have an idea what you're about to encounter.
Heading down to the waterfall it offers a nice trail that leads you to Blackburn Fork State Scenic River,
along with the stream heading to the main section of the waterfall.
I'll say it will take you approximately 2-3 hours to complete this hike, however,
it really depends how much time are you willing to spend on the waterfall because it is worth it.
Once we got to the waterfall it was a really stunning view and majestic 75-foot waterfall,
the water descending on the rocks was just something really beautiful to experience.
This main section of the fall is very slippery so be careful on stepping and jumping
from a set of rocks to another set as it could be a really dangerous section.
We spent around a good 45-minutes here at the waterfall just dipping on the water,
walking inside the fall itself which was very cool thing to do,
and just enjoying ourselves on our first hiking place on this trip.
Cummins Falls is definitely a hidden gem and fascinating waterfall it is said to be a very popular
destination here in Tennessee, so easily worth checking out if you ever had the chance to be in TN.
Next we headed to Fall Creek Falls which was just 1-hour heading down to Tennessee.
Fall Creek Falls State Park is considerably the most visited state park in the state,
and trust me it was full of big crowds and as you may know this is something I really hate lol.
This state park consist of 35-miles with total of 14 hiking's trails available which was not very
surprising as the park itself its pretty huge all around and has incredible views for first-time visitors.
They also have 222 different campsites in different zones and areas of the park,
and of course you will need permit for those staying overnight backpacking.
The great attraction without any doubt it's the gigantic Fall Creek Falls!
One of the tallest waterfalls in the Eastern US and better believe it!
There are several trails to get a good view of Fall Creek Falls, you can either go ahead to the overlook
on the top surface, or hike your way down to the Base Fall Creek Falls and Cane Creek Falls trail
which it is only 2.4 miles roundtrip and you'll get some spectacular views of this waterfall.
The trail it is somewhat rocky and steep if you decide to go all the way down and you might
encounter several trail path that are closed due to downed trees but there's always a path available.
Spotting the fall at a very close range it felt like an amazing experience,
we went ahead and hike the loop around the waterfall and we got splashed with so much water
but it was such a fun and unique experience seeing this monster of fall in front of our eyes.
Guys this is another top hiking destination I would totally recommend and one
waterfall that you would instantly fall in love with as soon as you see it.
Well my fellow readers this is all for this blog post, I will continue on with a few more blogs
from this series and hope you guys get to enjoy more of this hiking trip.
See you on the next blog!
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