Savage Gulf State Park has only been a state park under this name since 2022. Since then major improvements to facilities have been made, as you can see in the first few pictures. It was forecasted to be in the mid-20's this morning, but it was in the low-30's instead, making it considerably more pleasant to start. Even so, there were some cooling breezes especially atop cliffs.
Signage was abundant and clear all along the trail.
I had wanted to see the Stone Door for years, but I had never made the trip. It was 2 1/2 hours of driving from where we stayed in Knoxville and 2 more hours to home after that.
The Gulf is not massive by gorge standards, but it is quite long with cliffs most of the way along both sides. This is a downstream view.
The sandstone varies in quality but is almost always horizontal here. There must be some good climbing which is allowed in the park. Notice that the gulf looks significantly shallower upstream. This fact came in very handy later.
We were already warming up from walking and catching rays.
It always amazes me how flat and suddenly precipitous the sandstone cliffs frequently are.
Supposedly the Indians used this Stone Door to get up and down. It is slightly steeper than standard riser stairs, and trail maintainers have installed flat stones as stairs. I estimate that it drops about 120 feet.
My partner's (MP) picture is better than mine.*
It varies in width from about 8 to 12 feet, while the walls grow more intimidating the further down you go.
As you see here, there are many other smaller cliffs and a talus field of boulders below the main cliff line. The "dinosaur head" stuck out perhaps 15'.
Keep healthy and moving or some fungus or moss will take up residence upon you.
We regularly saw natural concrete, stones glued together. Usually these smooth-pebbled concretions would be called conglomerate, a sedimentary rock, but these seemed to sport quartzite and be more of a metamorphic variety. I'm not sure.
When we arrived at the main creek bed at the bottom of the gulf, we followed it perhaps 3/4-mile upstream before arriving at a sign indicating to cross over in order to approach Ranger Falls. We managed the crossing both ways with dry feet. The trail markers directed us up and beside a dry creek bed. I began to warn my partner that Cumberland Plateau streams and falls were notoriously absent of water due to cap rock and shallow soils. My brother later told me it had rained frequently of late. We were both pleasantly surprised to find the falls with a good amount of water flow. What was the reason for dry creek bed and abundant water fall?
The plunge pool flowed to the right of the falls and into a cave.
I would have like to have gone a least a short way into the cave, but tree trunks and branches blocked the way. Here I stand in the cave entrance looking up to the plunge pool.
Perhaps it was too wet, cold, and low to get into anyway.
Limestone not infrequently forms these patterns that look all the world like ripple marks in sand.
Caves and water are fascinating to me.
The plastic trail blaze is being swallowed up.
I thought to take a picture of the dry creek bed after seeing so much water over the falls. I supposed this is the pathway of abundant runoff.
A ways further up the main creek bed brought us to a wonderful swimming hole and...
...waterfall, which I decided to call Creekside Falls.
The pool was deep. There must be some perch from which to dive in up there.
Amber and red fungi trimmed in moss were taking away this fallen log.
MP saw beauty in something that I missed.*
Can you see it?
Does making it larger help? It is a wolf spider.
MP's camera is better and caught the gender of the spider.*
I commented on the difference in low elevation deciduous trees in winter compared to higher elevation ones in this part of the world. The high elevation branch tips of birches are bronze colored compared to the soft gray of oak branches. The bronze comes from buds set on in Fall.
Needle and Rock (random contrast caught my attention)
Cliff and Air-The trees are probably average for this area, 40-60 feet tall, so the cliff is 100+? Notice my very old Australian military wool pants. They are the best for cold.
Bouncy (more than swinging) bridge above Broadtree Falls (#3)
Upper Broadtree Falls
Intermediate landing between upper and lower falls
Upper Broadtree Falls
For all my viewing of sandstone capstone, I am always amazed at how far overhung it becomes when softer rock (usually limestone) erodes from underneath it.
Upper and Lower Broadtree Falls
The first large hemlock that I have seen in a long time.
The reason why it is still alive. Someone bore into it and injected it with a fungcidal (as I understand it).
I don't understand why this falls is not on the map and not labeled at the site. It is one of the tallest we saw this day. I decided to name it Bonus Falls (#4)
I had to stand on slick rock in the creek to get a full portrait of the falls owing to the large, upturned boulder before it.
Just above it was a rock and fern garden.
There were two varieties of ferns, the one at the right being Christmas Fern I think.
It is moments like this that I wished that I had hauled my climbing equipment into the gorge.
As we approached the next falls, I thought it silly that they should install this galvanized, perhaps 20' tall spiral staircase. However, when I got to the bottom, I realized that you might have to walk a very long way around to reach the base of the falls given the line of cliffs on both sides of the creek downstream. This fall is where the creek first falls into the gorge.
Lower Greeter Falls (#5) by name
I had several people tell me that I should delete this picture, since I look ragged and hunched over. But I was nine miles into a hike, I am old, and the clothing gives a false impression. Also, I'm not...well, it doesn't matter.
The dirt under the cliff, the cave in talus, the overhang, and the tree leaning out at top were all precarious.
This sycamore root cradled water that was still frozen even though the temperature had risen well above freezing.
My partner commented on the laminar flow across the boulder. The water was so without ripples as to be hard to see.
At a cliffside near you
The top of Lower Greeter Falls
Upper Greeter Falls (#6) was the shortest on the day. We kept looking, trying to see what gave with the wall. I looked like timbers but felt like rock. It had been a topped by a small diversion dam in years past to run a grist mill then sawmill.
MP captured a little historical context.*
He also took a better picture of the falls.*
Many seepage and splash zone residents are non-vascular plants that necessitates continuous water source, like the hornwort at bottom.
We are fascinated by so little. Do you see three right angles in natural rock?
Bouncing my way back.
Moss and fungi, the latter looking all the world like a dried flower to me.
We saw a seventh waterfall on the way out of the gorge. There was no good place to view or photograph it due to the utter steepness of the terrain. The hike out was continuous and reasonably steep but not overly long at this upper, shallower end of the gorge. The three mile walk back was over the flat topography of the capstone and good thing in our wearied condition.
Color of the unweathered sandstone
Really, it was flat, and new growth forest, too.
From the parking lot we walked a short distance down slope to our final falls, Laurel Falls (#8). It was significantly overhung...
...and curiously flat on top.
Frequently the cliffs around a falls or the plunge pool at its base are what make a falls unique or interesting.
We consider ourselves tremendously blessed to be able to travel to and hike for so long a distance and see so much. Even in its deteriorated condition, God's Creation is beautiful, intriguing, and challenging.
