Frozen Head State Park with the Grandkids --Barky Boats

 

Virginia spiderwort blooms at Frozen Head

Frozen Head State Park with the Grandkids 

June 9, 2022

Kenny, Dana & Gabe Koogler

Michael and Tessa Lindsey

1.4 miles Round Trip Hike-Easy

Frozen Head Pix Here 

  I had three of the grandkids with me today to watch.  Mia was still in Michigan visiting.   I packed up stuff and set off down the road to take them to Chik-Fil-A for lunch.  Something occurred to me to call Kenny.  I did call and found out he had a short day and was on his way home.  I told him what we were doing and asked if he wanted to join us? He said yes!  So we met him at the restaurant for lunch.  We still had to double back to the house though so he could change clothes.  It did not take long and we were back on the road heading to Morgan County.  The plan was to visit Frozen Head State Park.  The kids had been to Debord Falls before, but it had been three years.   I figured it would be a good day to play in the creek.

Above: Indian Pinkroot was in bloom today at the trail head for Flat Fork

     We drove out to the state park and went to the end.  We did see a few other hikers, but surprisingly few.  We found ample parking at the trailhead.  We put on our water shoes and gathered up the toys for playing in the creek.  We had nets to catch minnows, a few boats, and the like.  

       The trail was shady and cool.  The forest was so green and smelled fresh.

It was not long until we were at the top of the climb.  It levels off here and we were able to walk right on down to the falls.   We arrived to find no one else there. We had the place to ourselves.    

Below: Grandsons Michael age 13 and Gabriel age 6 by the No Parking Sign. This is some sort of inside joke with these kids that we adults are not privy to. 

Below: Granddaughter Tessa age 8 she is at the  overlook for DeBord Falls

Below: a profile view of Debord Falls as you first come down the steps

Below: a front shot of Debord Falls 

Debord Falls on Tennessee Landforms

  The kids changed into their water shoes and went straight into the creek and the pool at the falls.  They love playing in the creek almost as much as I did when I was a child.  

Below: Tessa has launched the Gup D- the little yellow one man submersible from the cartoon Octonauts.   

 Below: Tessa and the Gup D are ahead of Gabe and the speedboat 

I am that Nanny who never outgrew playing and I have a lot of fun with the kids.  I was in the creek at Mamaw & Papaw's house all the time.  I still like playing in the creek.  I keep two buckets full of water toys at my house.  I have tub toys in both bathrooms.  I keep my eyes open for any new worthy water craft at the Karm Thrift stores or Good Will, Dollar General or anywhere!   Nets too. You have to have nets to catch crawdads, minnows, and salamanders.  I brought three today, but left with only one.  A dad and his three boys showed up as we were leaving.  I left two of them with this family.  I promptly went out and bought some more. I hope those little guys had fun with them.  

      Below: I have waded over to the far side of the pool and got a different photo of Debord Falls than I ever have before.  Taken from the little side grotto of overhanging rock.  We saw lots of sucker fish and minnows today. I did not see any crawdads or salamanders despite peering beneath rocks. 

Below: sparkly water and many colored pebbles

Below: Grandson Michael is hamming it up for the camera. Tessa looks on

Below: Gabe is busily looking for something in the water. Tessa is coming to help.

Below: Tessa and Gabe. They are like a brother and sister. She is so caring to her little cousins and all children.  

Below: We were fortunate to have Papaw with us today. These are days we won't forget.  It was awesome! 

  We had seen several other good holes of water with little cascades on the hike to the falls.   The kids played as long as they wanted at Debord Falls, but eventually they wanted to begin working our way back downstream to enjoy some of the other spots.   Below is a photo of Gabe and Michael walking around on the rocks above another pretty water hole.  You can tell they are looking for something. At this point I was not sure what.

Below: Tessa daydreaming or planning her next move

Below: The pool at the second spot. It is nice! 

  Below: Tessa and Gabe are putting in their "Barky Boats" to race down the creek. This is what they were looking for. Not store bought toys, but ones they made themselves.  

 My grandkids... well our whole family loves the cartoon Bluey.  The photo below is one I found on the web about the "Barky Boats" episode.  McKenzie the little border collie and Bluey the Blue Heeler are racing bark chips down a stream. Our grandkids did this for a long while in the creek.  It delighted me to see them playing doing the sorts of things I did as a child.  Using their imaginations and playing outdoors in nature instead of in front of a screen.  This is one of the reasons I love the cartoon Bluey.  It is wholesome and promotes the kind of core values that I hold dear.   Anything that can promote kindness, imagination, and joy is great in my book.  Cartoons are smarter than they were when I was a kid. 

Above: a barky boat in the middle of the creek

Below: All three kids with their barky boats

Above: a large barky boat.  It helps when your Nana is a big kid who has never forgotten the value of a good stick or wood chip.

I found Michael a Polynesian double outrigger bark boat! We save the two best ones and brought them home! They are in my garage now just waiting for the next trip!

  We went on downstream eventually and they tried out the next big hole of water. 

It was deep and they couldn't see the bottom of it.   Michael tested it out and it was around 4 feet deep or so.   They used the biggest cane net I had to try to catch and release minnows. 

Above: Small cascades just before the swimming hole

Below: Michael tests the depth of the water with the net handle

Above: Tessa, Kenny and Gabe at the edge of the pool of water

Below: Scenes like this in the forest soothe my mind and my eyes.  My dreams are often of things like this.  Fill these kids minds up with good things. Beautiful places and memories so they will value them now and forever.

Below: Gabe's turn with the net-- see the fish in the bottom left corner?

Above: Big cheesy grin!  What a cute and happy boy!

  Finally we realized how late it was getting. The kids still wanted to play on the playground as we promised them.  We hiked back to the vehicle and they changed clothes into drier things.  We took them on down to the playground where they had even more fun.   They made friends with other children and played together.

The other kids did not want them to go when we finally had to leave. That is a good thing to have made friends so quickly who liked you that much!

Below: pretty bridge across to the playground

Below: I waded down into the shallow creek to get a better view of the bridge. It is a lovely spot. 

Below: nice playground set up

Above: Tessa on the slide

Below: Gabe on the slide

  The kids wore it out, but it was approaching 6 pm and we were getting hungry.

We did not make it to the visitor center today as we hoped. The other thing we did not do was have time to check out a few more water holes at the park.   That means we'll have to come back!  I'd love to pack a cookout and stay all day.  I don't think I'll have any objections from the kids! 

    We drove back to Oak Ridge and stopped at Freddy's Frozen Custard.  We were indulgent grandparents and we let everyone including ourselves have icecream for supper. Actually it was our first time trying the frozen custard and it was scrumptious!  It will be a long time before I eat it again though. It was too rich and sweet.  A little bit of that will hold me for a long time.  All in all it was a marvelous day.  Making great memories and spending quality time together.  Things have changed since I was a child, but not EVERYTHING is different.  Not everything is worse. Somethings are very much the same or better!

   

Below is a video taken at different points along the creek today.  

Conasauga Falls and Scenic Drive with the Family Round 1

Trailing arbutus along Conasauga Falls trail. 

One of the earliest flowers to bloom in Spring. 

Conasauga Falls and Scenic Drive with the Family Round 1

3/27/2020

Dana Crystal, Michael ,Tessa

Pix are here 

(Either X out the top right box or click the right arrow to advance. Photo 

album is a combination of several trips.  Pictures start with the photo of bright pink clump of trailing arbutus)

Link to Conasauga Scenic Loop Drive Directions 

    This is one of the slightly abbreviated trip reports I'm catching up on. 

This took place right at the start of the corona virus crisis of 2020.   School was out because of that as well as Spring break had just started anyhow.   We were trying to get out and hike each week as a family.  

      Above: Michael and Tessa start our hike

   We decided upon Conasauga Falls as a hike with other options to come later in the day.  I had long wanted to try driving Witt Road and Hot Water Road to make a loop back to Coker Creek from Conasauga.   I had been told by Nate Yarbrough it was a very pretty drive.  I still had not tried it.

     Above: vernal iris likes dry pine woods

   We drove to Tellico Plains and on to the turn for Conasauga Falls trail.

We got to the end of the spur road and parked.   We saw one vehicle already there.   Another pulled up as we got out.   It was a mom and teen aged daughters.

I felt confident Tessa would be easily able to handle the 1.3 mile hike today.

It is a gradual downward hike on a good trail with switchbacks.    The day was warm and promised to get warmer.     We hiked out through the piney woods.

The forest smelled great. Fresh air and pine needle fragrance.     We saw trailing arbutus waxy pink dots along the path.  We saw vernal iris and  dwarf crested iris purple blooms also.

     We had to use care on the approach to the end of the trail.  The trail becomes more narrow and tricky.  Rocky areas and lots of tree roots.  We made it down without incident.    The stream was visible below. The kids and Crystal were really wowed by their first sight of Conasauga Falls.  It was running great today!

Beautiful Conasauga Falls. You can see a teen girl standing looking at the falls about halfway up.  Great for scale!

Below: Michael throwing sticks or rocks. Tessa gets a drink of water. Crystal looks on.

  

Below: Michael.. my grandson age 11.  He is getting so tall!

Below: Tessa has found a pretty pebble

   We sat at the falls and enjoyed the cool mist and talked to the mom and her daughters a little bit.  They are home schoolers so they were not as affected schedule wise by the corona virus.   Dad worked from home. Mom was the teacher.   A pretty good set up especially for living that far out in the country.

     We made the hike back up to the top and vehicle.  We discussed what to do next. The kids liked the idea of driving through the creek and playing in the water.   I was good with that.  We figured we'd do that next since it was close.  If we had time left over and energy we'd add something else on. 

    We took my jeep with Crystal driving and me navigating round Witt Road.  I had been on it once before but only a short distance.   It is a winding gravel road.    It wasn't long til we got to the first creek ford. We pulled over to explore. 

  A short stroll downstream of about 25 yards had us standing beside a pretty cascade on Conasauga Creek!  

 We walked on downstream a bit further.  It was just incredible.  Lots of holes of clear, sparkling water, colorful pebbles and scenic cascades. 

Conasauga Cascade. Here we are about  1/2 mile above the main falls we just visited! 

Above and below

Sitting down to check out tiny pebbles.

Below: Crystal is lost in thought.

Below: Michael gets ready to wade the creek.

Below: Not to be so easily outdone.. Tessa gets in the water too

Below: path by the stream heading down along a series of picturesque cascades

Below:  mossy interesting boulders to scramble around above the path

  We were beginning to get hungry so eventually we worked our way back toward the jeep.   We'd packed a nice lunch of sandwiches and fruit and chips.

We spied a black snake as we neared the vehicle.  The kids both like snakes and are fascinated by them.   He'd been under my jeep, but was slithering across the road.  

Mr. Black Snake... where are you going? 

and he answered.. four wheeling! as he crawled across the top of a big gravel pile and down the other side of it.  Then he headed for a nearby tree and began crawling up it.

Tessa ran over to the tree to watch him and talk to him.

In this image above you can see where he is going.. up the tree to that small knot hole!  

Eventually he disappeared into the knot hole... all of him! Here is a funny picture with just his tail hanging out

Below is a video of the snake and his doings

     The kids played in the pretty creek and we ate our lunch here at this spot.  It was really nice.    We then drove through the creek and continued onward. Below is a photo of the first creek ford.



   We forded the stream several more times. The drive was glorious.  We had so much fun.  The road is rough. We took a wrong turn once and ended up in someone's driveway. Such is life in the Coker Creek area. pfffftt..
Crystal had to execute a seventeen point turn around, but we got righted and made our way round to Epperson Road and Hot Water Road and back out to Hwy 68.  We were all worn out so we headed home.    What a fun day!  The kids were already talking about coming back and bringing Papaw and Gabe.  They were discussing bringing various family members back to see this place. They were going fishing, tubing, etc.  Gee.. where do they get it?

 Below is a short video of Conasauga Falls

Below a short video of Conasauga Cascade