The weather has been truly amazing for the past few days.
Late last week it was sunny and 72 degrees.
The past couple of days have been equally beautiful, equally sunny, still with endless blue skies only welcomingly cooler.
Yesterday LC and I got up, looked at the blue sky outside, saw that the temperature was about 35 degrees but was supposed to struggle to reach 50, and knew that we had to spend some time exploring outside.
As we were walking yesterday in a magical world in the mountains it was about 45 degrees and I was reminded again that this temperature is so much better for me than 72.
Cool always feels better than hot
Scandinavian by birth and by temperament this was very welcome weather for me, and I gladly embraced it.
Now if only it would snow....
After putzing around the house for a couple of hours drinking coffee and checking emails and doing all the things one does on the weekend when they are not really in a hurry, we eventually gathered up our enthusiastic dog who (without us saying a word to her) had already sensed the upcoming adventure, loaded into the truck and headed up onto the mountain.
Headed for Stone Door.
There are a number of winding, steeply graded two lane highways that head up onto the Cumberland Plateau.
All of them are lined with dense hard wood forest.
Very few have areas where you can pull off the highway to look down over the valley and enjoy views of endless farm land, a series of mountains lining the distant landscape, multiple water towers showing the location of small towns.
Yesterday we happily found one of those hard-to-find pull-offs and I quickly snapped these pictures before continuing the climb higher.................
Two-lane, winding, switchback filled, tree lined, steep and climbing road leading up to the towns of Sewanee and Monteagle and Tracy City and other smaller communities.................
As we got closer to Stone Door I realized that it had been a few years since I was last there.
Somehow a lot of the roads approaching the park, the parking lot itself that was filled with vehicles, even the Ranger Station and adjoining other small park structures in the same area all felt strange to me.
I was surprised that none of it felt familiar.
I have been to Stone Door over the years for many reasons.
I rappelled here with a group many years ago.
Walked lengthy trails with two female team-mates also many years ago.
More recently LC and I walked to the door and then explored trails that were new to both of us a couple of years before I left for Juneau.
On that particular day the weather was horrible - grey and overcast and raining.
As we were walking down the rock steps of Stone Door on that day I looked down and saw three people walking up the steps and headed our way.
I did not pay attention to their faces but simply nodded a polite hello before by-passing them, concentrating more on not falling than three strangers.
Once we had awkwardly passed each other I heard one of them call back to me and LC asking if we were members of an adventure racing club.
He specifically mentioned the club by name and I turned in surprise, to more closely look at the three.
Fellow adventure racers from Nashville as it turned out, and I came to know one of them very well in the year before I left for Alaska.
While my Mountain Boy spent some time inside the Ranger Station I wandered along the walk-way with my happy puppy, signed the form at the kiosk indicating the number in our party and the time we headed onto trails, and then looked closely at the map that was displayed on the back wall of the kiosk.............
I may not have had strong memories of the Ranger Station but I definitely and very clearly remembered this map.
It tells the story of the terrain.
There are portions of this place that are extreme and that is one of the major draws of this natural area.
But once you travel beyond the rock bluffs and walk beyond Stone Door the trails take on the familiar dirt-root-rock-up and down feel that is so common to trails in the Savage Gulf area.
I love this place.
About six weeks ago I walked part of the Savage with a group of strangers, all part of a Nashville based hiking group:
When we were done for the day some of the hikers made their way to Stone Door.
I elected to simply head for the house instead, wanting to see it but wanting to see it with my Mountain Boy............
For all the times I have been to Stone Door I have never been to Laurel Falls.
While waiting for LC I looked at the wooden signs posted close to the kiosk pointing the way to the falls in one direction and Stone Door in the opposite and when my Mountain Boy rejoined me and James we decided to first visit the falls.
They were located only a short walk away.
Down - and down - and down some more stairs...............
After heading down a whole lotta stairs I wondered if we would have to climb the same stairs back up and out of the gorge.
I hoped not.
Jamie especially would have a tough time with them.
My first view of Laurel Falls..............
For the thousandth time I wondered how I had not realized when we lived in Tennessee before Juneau and before Wyoming, that this state is absolutely and completely filled with waterfalls.
I smiled as I took in this scene, happily relishing in the sight of beautiful...............
The small wooden overlook...............
After standing at the overlook for a few minutes we wandered down the short narrow trail and moved along large flat rocks close to the stream that fed the waterfall.
Until recently I had never stood right beside and at the very top of a waterfall.
In the past couple of months I have stood at the very top of a number of area falls.
Extremely exciting...............
A quiet stream picking up speed as it gets closer and closer to the crest of the falls..............
Walking along the edge of the stream we did indeed find another trail that circled up and back to the Ranger Station.
Some steps, but not as many as the way we had walked down into the gorge.............
And then quickly picking up a wide open trail that gradually moved us up and out..............
An unexpected and unplanned diversion where we found a beautiful waterfall.
On a beautiful, cool, sunny, endless blue sky day, the three of us began a quiet and wonderful adventure.
After arriving back at the Ranger Station we veered to the right this time, heading for Stone Door..............
All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.........Marie Curie
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