Savage Gulf and Fiery Gizzard

From Asheville I drove southwest into really really RURAL southeastern Tennessee. Just west of Chattanooga is the South Cumberland wilderness area. From the bird's eye view, it looks like some giant pre-historic chicken stepped in the mud of the Cumberland Plateau and left a 30,000-acre footprint.

The resulting canyons and cliffs yield breath taking (pun intended) hikes and water features. In the 1930s the CCC created infrastructure to support hiking and camping for access to the best the park has to offer. Each area has its own quirky rural Tennessee name and story. I camped in the Savage Gulf and hiked on the Fiery Gizzard trail through Dog Hole and across Raven Point.

Savage Gulf is named for the family that owned the tract of land. Local legend says that while eating a turkey at his camp along the Fiery Creek, Davy Crockett burned his tongue on a gizzard and spit it into the gorge and it became Fiery Gizzard. Don't ask me how Dinky Line campground got its name.

I took an afternoon side trip to Whitwell, TN at my dad’s suggestion. In 1996, Whitwell's elementary school kids decided to collect paper clips to help them visualize the 6.5 million people killed in Nazi concentration camps. The kids sent letters to request paper clips and they started rolling in with stories about the victims they represented. To house the 6.5 million paper clips, the town built a museum inside a German transport rail car donated for that purpose. I was overwhelmed seeing the quantity of paperclips, it was simply heartbreaking. With all the craziness and division in the world today, it is really hard to imagine how we'll get ourselves back in order. To date, the school has received more than 30 million paper clips - and has donated the excess to schools all over the world.

After three nights in one of Tennessee’s most famous state parks, topped off by some killer enchiladas one afternoon post-hike. Color me happy and full, headed to middle and western TN next.