Swallowtail Butterfly
Virgin Falls from the Caney Fork River
Saturday August 15,2015
Dana& Kenny Koogler
Jay Walker
( I started a Scotts Gulf album and will be adding to it. )
Our new friend Jay, myself and Kenny had wanted to get out to the Davis Cemetery and then continue out to Virgin Falls from the Caney Fork River/Big Bottom end. We had been to Davis cemetery before, but Jay had not. All of us had been to Virgin Falls before at least twice, but never
from the river side of things. One of the reasons for the hold out on Summer Virgin Falls trips is
the diminished flow in Summer. Who wants to commit to an eight mile round trip hike when the water volume on the main attraction may be pitiful? We got lucky though and the falls was running
just perfect. We saw spider lilies for the first time. We made friends with people. We had fun exploring the cave for the first time. It was very nice getting to meet Jay at last.
The trail from Big Bottom to the Davis Cemetery is rough. Rocky cobbles. Mud pits.
Downed trees. The Davis Cemetery trail from the cemetery to the Caney Fork and up toward Virgin Falls connector trail is in good shape. Only one downed tree and less mud. We never saw any snakes today ourselves, but talked to a fellow who had seen one. The river down at Big Bottom and up until much closer to Davis Ford was dry. There was one swimming hole left at Big Bottom.
The river approaching Davis Ford was running enough to be pretty, but easy to ford. No worries today about getting swept away in the current. Slippery rocks though. The Davis Ford had a big hole of water above it.
Spider lilies are waist high and very pretty.
Old stone walls and chimney piles down in Scotts Gulf are found in many places.
Davis Ford up river of the ford.
Caney Fork River at Davis Ford not too bad to cross.
Virgin Falls front shot
Red hammock hanging up at the edge of Virgin Falls. They took it down later so we were able to get some shots minus the hammock.
In all previous trips I had not even been up to the caves of Virgin Falls. Jay had been up there before.
Today we met some really nice guys at the falls enjoying the day. They said they were my "fans".
I was honored that they even knew about my blog. We went in the cave and around to the back entrance which I did not even know existed! Never saw a single bat, but did see one spider.
Kenny sitting on a rock in the dark. You can see him back there with his head lamp.
Davis Cemetery Trail. It is so pretty.
We liked Jay. We finally got that trip scrached off the list of things we wanted to do.
Already looking forward to the next adventure. Hoping we get some rain so the waterfalls will get
flowing good!
Beautiful pictures. I did not know about the caves.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It was fun. I knew about them, but had not been to them. They are neat!
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