Frozen Head Hike to Debord Falls With the Family 2025

above: Virginia spiderwort in bloom 

 Frozen Head Hike to Debord Falls With the Family 2025

Wed. June 11, 2025

Crystal & Tessa Lindsey

Dana, Gabe & Mia Koogler

Pictures are HERE

Directions to Frozen Head and Debord Falls HERE 

   My daughter Crystal is a teacher and has the Summer off with the students.  We talked it over and decided we wanted to take a trip up to Frozen Head State Park. We'd take the kiddos and let them play in the creek.  My original plan was to have a picnic out there, but we opted to have lunch in Chik-Fil-A

in Oak Ridge instead.  The kids enjoyed the food and the play land.  Once that was finished we headed on out the road to the state park.   We always enjoy it.  Today would be Mia's first time there and her first time at a waterfall!   

      We arrived finding very few vehicles around.  We were able to park right at the trailhead.  

We gathered up our drinks and creek toys and started our hike.  The little ones noticed a pretty hole of water right past the gate. We stopped there first to let them go ahead and play. 

Above: My daughter Crystal looks on as Mia age 4 wades right in.  

Below: Gabe is a little more cautious

Below: some of the pretty things we saw were wildflowers.. the one below is Virginia spiderwort

and below is a pair of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. Tessa was able to pick one up and hold it a moment before it flew.  

    

Below: Granddaughter Tessa age 12 with her hat on backwards. Crystal and Gabe. 

  The  kids remembered we were supposed to be hiking to the waterfall so we soldiered on! 

It is a super short, easy hike which is nice especially for taking along a four year old who isn't used to hiking.   Mia never complained or slowed down the entire time!  She was full of energy and all about it!   

       We saw a few other hikers, but most were coming back toward us.  

We soon crested the little knoll where you turn to go over to Debord Falls.   Tessa and Gabe remembered it from a couple other visits.   We turned right and headed toward the steps.

The steps are impressive and newly done.  

Below is the beautiful Debord Falls in good Summer flow! 

Below:  Mia and Tessa are checking out a crawdad in the net.  Nanny had to catch him. I'm still the expert.  The kids forget that crawdads go BACKWARDS away from you.  

  

Below: Gabriel has been dunking his head in the falls and the creek. He reminded me at one point for the world... of John Quillen.  LOL 

Below: a look at the crawdad who had only one claw!  Nanny picked him up but nobody else wanted to hold him. 

above and below: Tessa is on the hunt for critters! 

Below: Gabe and Mia

  The kids had a great time splashing around and catching butterflies, crawdads, minnows in the creek.

Once they had their fill of that  we took them to the playground in the state park.   They had a great time making friends with other kids and playing together.   Mia mastered the skill of going down the fireman's pole part of the playset.   I had to help her the first time, but after that she was good to go!

above and below: Gabe and Tessa on the playset

 The kids were great and it was a bluebird day. Perfect weather.   No problems.  All went to plan.

 Finally we persuaded them it was time to head home.  They were tired especially Mia.   She was asleep shortly after we pulled out on the road.     We made a stop in Oak Ridge for Crystal and Tessa to go in the book store.  The rest of us waited in the car while Mia napped.  We thought we wanted icecream, but everyone was worn out and just ready to go home.  The only minor snag we  hit was trying to leave Oak Ridge during rush hour!  Kenny was somewhere caught in it too.  No matter. We had a great day and made it home safely.   

 

  Below is a video of the playing in the creek part of our day.