Arches at Big South Fork National Park

We had always wanted to go hiking and see the Arches at Big South Fork National Park http://www.nps.gov/biso/planyourvisit/things2know.htm on the Cumberland Plateau. It is about 2 hrs north of Knoxville just south of the Kentucky state line. The park is actually located in both Tennessee and Kentucky. So on this particular day when we got the urge to hit the road, we headed north to this destination. It took us quite awhile to get where we were going due to stopping at other places that had caught our eye on the way up. One thing that we have learned is to take your time because you never know if you'll go back down that same road again. We had gotten a little late start on this day, so by the time we got to the trailhead it was about 3:00 pm in the afternoon (in the fall). The hike itself was easy so we hiked up to the arches with no problems. We took photos of the arches and walked around for a little while enjoying the view and then decided to head back to the car (or so we thought). The direction on the trail map said if you crossed over the arches you could continue on another trail to get back to the parking area. We proceeded to cross over the arches but somehow missed our trail back. We thought we were headed back to the car but after walking for approx. 30 minutes and watching the darkness begin to set in, we knew that something was not right. Yes, I finally convinced Chuck that we were on the wrong trail (even in the woods a man thinks he knows he can find his way without help). So we turned around and went back toward the arches while continuing to climb in and around some beautiful hugh boulders that were massive in size. Finally, we came upon two other hikers passing us heading into the woods for the night. They confirmed that we had been on the wrong trail, but that we were heading in the right direction. I was getting a little nervous with the sun going down and being in the woods with no light or coat, but once we made it back to the arches, we found our trail and eventually made it back to the car. Talking about being happy to see that car!!!!!! Then we had to drive two hours to get back home.

There is so much to see in that area. There is a train ride you can take on the Big Southfork Scenic Railway http://www.bsfsry.com/ that goes into an area that use to mine coal in the 1940s. We had taken this train ride several years ago. Very interesting to learn about life in that area during that particular period of time. There is also a backcountry lodge in the park called Charit Creek http://www.charitcreek.com/. The Big South Fork National Park is near Jamestown which is near the home of WWI's most decorated hero, Sergent Alvin York http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/SgtYork/ in Pall Mall, TN. Very interesting to read about this great hero.