Nashville Tennessee to Mammoth Caves NP Kentucky

Spring

We rocked into Nashville with plans to register for a marathon….well a half marathon. “What” I can hear you thinking but it’s easy to explain. The Country Music Marathon stages local bands every mile along the course so  I'm sure you'll agree it's sounds like a great way to listen to lots of live music.

Downtown Nashville

It reminded me of Beale Street in Memphis

There is so much to take in when arriving in a new town and in Nashville they have the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Fontanel Mansion, the Adventure Science Museum and much more. So being in the Country Music Capital our first stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame.

There was a tribute to the great Patsy Cline: Crazy for Loving You and an exhibit of the Bakersfield Sound of the 60’s featuring musicians like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. This interested me because we have been to Bakersfield several times and I had no idea that Californian Country Music had so much history there.

Two interesting exhibits were Elvis Presley’s customized luxury limousine, a 1960’s Cadillac. It's exterior has 40 coats of paint containing diamond dust and fish scales giving it an opulent sheen. It's hub caps, wheel covers, headlight rims and front grill are gold plated with 24 kt gold. Inside the curtains, phone, fridge and entertainment console were also gold plated.

Elvis's luxury limo

The vehicle parked beside it was the "Silver Dollar" Cadillac owned by Webb Pierce a popular Honky Tonk singer from the 50's.

The "Silver Dollar"

As the name suggests the vehicles interior was covered with silver dollar coins along with a small leather saddle and lots of guns.

Guns, coins and leather

When we walked out the sky had clouded over and with an 80% chance of rain forecast it didn't look promising for the marathon and street party scheduled for the next day. 

The downtown area was filled with bars and live music. We stepped inside some to listen for a while before moving on down the street. We sipped a beer at Honky Tonk Central listening to a country music band and fiddle player.

I think the country music was getting to us because we found ourselves in one of the many boot stores that was doing a roaring trade with a 3 for 1 offer. At $360 a pair I wondered who was getting the bargain. From then on I noticed everyone was wearing Nashville Boots.

It started to sprinkle as we ducked for cover under the shady trees on our way to BB Kings Blues Club. Carl Stewart was performing with the All Stars and we enjoyed their rich and wonderful music.

BB Kings Blues Club

It was now raining as we made our way to Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" for more live music. With all the parrot head fans in town we secretly hoped Jimmy would pop in for a surprise visit before his concert tomorrow night…!!

The rain, thunder and lightning was still going when we woke the next morning. So we needed somewhere dry to spend the day and Nashville had just the place. So with thoughts of the marathon and live music seeping away we set out to join a procession of vehicles apparently all heading to the same destination…..Gaylord's Opryland, a hotel and then some. A place you need to see for yourself.

You can take a boat ride...

Watch the fountain

Maybe stay the night

In the end the rain drove us out of Nashville and into Kentucky where we decided to explore the caves. With all the rain it’s no wonder the scenery was so beautiful and green.

No need for reticulation here..

We arrived at Mammoth Caves NP to find Green River was flooding and many of the hiking trails were closed but the good news was they were still running cave tours.

Flowering Dogwood trees

We booked our day up with a morning and an afternoon tour of the caves and learnt that so far they have surveyed 365 miles (587 km's) of cave passages making it the largest in the world.

Sitting on the bus we were driven to a location a few miles from the Visitor's Centre. Then we walked down a trail to a door, set in the rock face, with a keypad.

The door....

I squashed my claustrophobia feelings and entered the chamber focusing on the 280 steps that descended 250 ft to the bottom.

Descending the stairs

The descent had us contorting our bodies to fit through narrow openings and ducking so we wouldn't scrape out heads on the rocks above.

It was a tight squeeze

Water seeped through the rocks dripping on us as we made our way down. 

Descending further into the abyss

The Ranger mentioned the stainless steel steps had cost $3,000 per step and I couldn't imagine how they got them installed in such tight confines.

New graffiti over old graffiti

Drapery formations

We listened to interesting stories about the caves in the early 1900’s when they first became a tourist attraction. Bitter rivalry between local cave owners became known as the “Kentucky Cave Wars”. Deception lured customers away from their intended tours with one of the owners building a wall to give the impression that the cave was either quarantined, closed or inaccessible so the the tourist from the rival company was then coerced into touring the cave with them instead.

Water art

The Ranger talked about the discovery of a 2,000 year old mummified body of a gypsum miner found in the cave. And about the rescue attempts in1925 of a cave explorer who became trapped in a tight crawl space when he dislodged a rock that fell on his leg. They were unable to free him and he died of hypothermia.

Our 3 hour cave tour that afternoon was a completely different experience as we entered via the natural entrance and walked three miles through the cave carrying only a few  kerosene lanterns to light the way.

Natural cave entrance

Cave tour by lantern light

We walked by a wood pipes made from poplar logs that carried water used for mining the Saltpeter a mineral used in making gun powder required for the War of 1812 between the US and Great Britain.

Mining the Saltpeter

Further along we saw 2 huts where a Dr Croghan believed the cave environment would heal people inflicted with tuberculosis and actually sent patients to live in the huts for prescribed periods of time.

Having a rest

Early cave graffiti

There were 2 waterfalls in the cave that poured through a hole in the limestone falling around 100 feet directly down to a pool below and one of the Rangers walked on ahead to shine a torch up on the falling water. It really was an amazing sight to see deep within the cave.

Water fall

Back at the campground I began looking through tourist brochures of where to go next and I noticed that we would be near Louisville for the Kentucky Derby and I thought.... we should go.

Backpacking the Appalachian Trail

Over the years we had met Appalachian Trail hikers, read Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” and thought about hiking this famous trail and so it was exciting to be here in Georgia hiking the approach trail to the start of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.

The rain had passed and the cold that had seeped into our bones over the last couple of days disappeared as we set off in sunshine and blue skies.  

Appalachian Trail fever....

It was an up and down trail and within a short distance we come across some hikers already having difficulty with the terrain and I hoped they would have the determination to keep on going.

Yep...more uphill

Further on we met some hard core enthusiasts from Florida and South Carolina who had been out on the trail for the last month enduring snow, sleet and very cold weather just to get away from it all.

The deciduous trees were still bare here, which was nice because it gave us a view through the branches to the mountain ranges in the distance. The ground was a carpet of fallen leaves and the trail was full of sparkling mica rocks and large chunks of marble. I thought how different it would be hiking in the summer under the canopy of leafy trees.

We secured a grassy spot to pitch our tent at Springer Mountain Shelter and not a moment too soon because it wasn’t long before the campground was bursting at its seams with through hikers. This wasn’t the place to be if you were after some peace and solitude….

Springer Mountain Shelter campsite

With a cool evening approaching and the horizon turning a vivid pink through the trees we made a fire and heated up our dinner but we struggled to eat it all.

Vivid sunset

During the night I got up and as I looked around I felt I was on an island surrounded by a sea of stars as the lights from surrounding towns twinkled through the trees in the valley below.

We woke early and after signing the official Appalachian Trail register we set off downhill entering a new world of Gaps, Notches and Balds.

The trail wound its way under vast arches of rhododendron bushes and at times was quite muddy underfoot.

Arch of Rhododendrons

Then continuing we entered a rainforest of tall trees, creeks and lovely waterfalls.

Beautiful waterfalls

The temperature increased as we climbed out of the protection of the tall trees so it was with relief when we traversed the top and began to descend on the shady side into Hawk Mountain Shelter for the night.

Where on the right trail...

Home for the night

We started the next day downhill and then climbed a few steep uphills before stopping for a break at the top of the ridge.

 The scenery changed around each bend

One of the many creeks

We descended for some time to a spot overlooking a creek and decided to have our lunch before making the uphill push to Gooch Shelter. Voices echoed loudly from the campground so we decided to walk on to Gooch Gap in hopes of a smaller crowd in camp. It turned out to be a good choice with less people and a lovely bridge to sit on while we filtered our water.

Preacher Rock Overlook

Morning came quickly and we set off for Woody Gap arriving in plenty of time to be picked up by a lovely lady who we really enjoyed talking to. We found out her husband shuttled Bill and Katz from Atlanta Airport in Bill Bryson’s book “A Walk in the Woods”. She gave us a tour of downtown Dahlonega before dropping us back at Dude.

With all our gear packed away we set off for North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains driving through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. My first thoughts were we’ll have to come back to see it in autumn....!!

We arrived at Oconaluftee Visitors Centre to find a landslide had closed Newfoundland Gap which meant we had to drive around the park. We camped a few nights at Smokemont and Catalooche before driving into Tennessee where we decided to do some loop hikes up to the Appalachian Trail.

Mountain Farm Museum in Oconaluftee

Grazing Elk  in Catalooche

Visiting Butterfly's in our campsite

It was exciting to be on the trail again and we set off between weather systems for a strenuous day hike up to the Appalachian Trail.

Trillium flowers carpeting the ground

This 13 mile (21 km) hike with 3,500 ft (1,067 m) of climbing and descending would give us a snapshot of what to expect if we decided to hike the whole trail.

Water cascading along the trail

Moss covered rocks

The trail traverses the ridge of the Great Smoky Mountains

A carpet of green emerges on the ground 

It turned out to be a big day and for now I was happy to continue being a section hiker.

The Dogwood trees were flowering and bright green leaves were beginning to emerge on the trees. It was wonderful to see spring taking a firmer hold.

Then the rain set in so we went for a drive to Pigeon Forge to discover we had arrived in the middle of the “Spring Grand Rod Run” and hundreds of classic car enthusiasts were cruising up and down the Scenic Parkway at 5 mph. 

A day later the weather cleared and with our permit in hand we set off on another 4 day backpack. It was very pretty with the leaves emerging on the trees and wildflowers covering the ground. In fact it was so lush that it reminded me of Olympic NP. 

We climbed high up to Miry Ridge Trail through dense rhododendron bushes and forded cascading creeks to reach our campground at Dripping Springs Mountain.

It was 35 F (2 C) when we woke and the sun gave little warmth as we hiked up to the Appalachian Trail. It was interesting to know as I hiked my left foot was in Tennessee and my right foot was in North Carolina...!! We chatted to lots of through hikers as we made our way to Double Spring Gap Shelter for the night.

Trout Lily

Frost and ice covered the ground as we set off for Clingman's Dome. It was a heart starter straight away as we hiked up through dense fir trees and fallen logs covered with green moss. Not much light filtered through making it very chilly. We stopped for a snack at Clingmans Dome taking in the panoramic view before descending a very rocky trail to the Mt Collins Shelter.

Clingman's Dome

This was the busiest Appalachian Shelter we had encountered with hikers stopping here to resupply in Gatlinburg the next day.  

It was a warmer night and very bright with the moon shining into the shelter. I climbed into my sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.

Wildflower beauty 

The shelter was empty by the time we set off to walk 13 miles and descend 3,600 ft to Jakes Creek Trail Head. At first we had to scramble around lots of fallen trees.

Getting a real workout...

We climbed over lots of fallen trees

Then as we descended we were surrounded by wildflowers and the trail followed the river back to the trail head.

Trillium in bloom

The scenery and chatting to the through hikers had made this a memorable experience and we were looking forward to joining the trail again as we travel northwards..... 

Beautiful wilderness