Tennessee is a Beautiful State

There are all sorts of lists on the Internet about the best and most beautiful places in Tennessee to visit and photograph. You can look some of these up yourself and decide which ones you like the best. Personally, I think there are several spectacular places to visit and terrain to see in Tennessee and I’d probably always put Fall Creek Falls in the top 10, maybe even #1.

Fall Creek Falls is the highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. With a sheer drop of 256 feet it is almost 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls. It’s in a Tennessee state park with a brand new lodge located on a lake, and if you’ve never been there you should definitely go. It’s easily worth the trip, not terribly far from the mid-point of I-24 between Nashville and Chattanooga. You can also take I-40 to Cookeville and head south and there is a brand new four lane highway that takes you most of the way. The neat thing about Fall Creek Falls is that there is a footpath up to the falls from one direction, but you can drive up to the overlook from the other direction.

An obvious spot that comes to mind is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the most visited park in the national park system with more than 13 million visitors per year. It has more than twice the number of visitors as the next most visited park, the Grand Canyon (4.7 million). One of the prettiest parts of the park is Cades Cove, a bucolic valley with some of the original log-cabin type homes, single room schools, grist mills, and tiny churches that are preserved. Each of the churches has its own cemetery, which is interesting all by itself. The park was dedicated in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt near Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee, North Carolina line. My grandfather and namesake, John Buchanan Avery, Sr. made the arduous trip across the state to hear FDR’s speech: “So, to the free people of America, I dedicate this Park.”

Perhaps the most obvious place that would have to be on anyone’s list of beautiful sites in Tennessee is Lookout Mountain. Chattanooga is in the enviable position of being the only city in the eastern U.S. that sits directly at the foot of a 1,000+ foot mountain. Atlanta may have Stone Mountain, but Stone Mountain is quite a few miles east of the city and is not as tall. It does not dominate the skyline like Lookout Mountain does. Lookout Mountain also has interesting geologic features such as Ruby Falls that is an underground waterfall literally inside the mountain. With a drop of 62 feet it is the highest subterranean waterfall in the country. Don’t take that tour if you are somewhat claustrophobic as am I. There are a couple of uncomfortably narrow spots on the underground trail to the falls. Also, Lookout Mountain is a key historic site as the location of a Civil War battlefield.

Another gorgeous location in Tennessee is the Pall Mall area in Fentress County. This is where Sgt. Alvin C. York, the Medal of Honor winner during World War I. You will recall that York was drafted into the Army as a conscientious objector from this remote, stunning patch of God’s green earth. They talked him into staying in the Army. He was sent to the trenches in France in 1917 where he single-handedly knocked out several machine gun nests and captured a whole company of German soldiers. The view of the hills in the distance from his grave is one of the places you will want to put on your list. It is as picturesque as anything east of the Rocky Mountains.

My wife Judy and I both think a view of the Mississippi River from the Chickasaw Bluffs at Memphis should be on this list. So should the unique history and nature of Reelfoot Lake.  We can’t really challenge the towering mountains in East Tennessee for the highest ranked spots on the list, but for me the low rolling hills of West Tennessee have a beauty and tranquility all their own. I’ll see you on down the trail.