Cummins Falls

Today we ventured out on a grey but relatively warm afternoon at Cummins Falls, Tennessee's newest state park. It was privately owned until just a couple years ago and so has not been developed much yet. There is a parking lot with bathrooms and some rough trails. This allows the natural beauty to really shine through. The Blackburn Fork River is the cleanest blue river I have seen in Tennessee outside of the Smokies. The hike down the gorge and then up the riverbed is relatively short, but all the things to explore kept us there for hours. We quickly discovered the limestone beds in the lowest part of the gorge are quite fossiliferous. The rocks contained abundant bivalve shells, coral and crinoids. To get to the base of the falls we had to cross the river, which meant taking off our shoes and wading. Even in the 50 degree weather that water was cold! It was worth it to see the beauty of the falls up close. Check out our pictures below: