Hi ! Welcome to my website with pictures from my backpacking trip to Savage Gulf Natural Area in Tennessee about an hour north of Chattanooga. This trip was planned with net friends but only 2 others ended up coming in the long run - Melinda from Rockford, IL and Shannon from Atlanta, GA. If you are interested in hiking/backpacking in this area then you can call the South Cumberland State Recreation Area in Monteagle, TN at 615-924-2980 to request a map. Hiking and camping is free but you do have to stop by a ranger station and fill out a permit so that they know who is in the backcountry.

I have scanned some of my better photos and hope you will enjoy them. More text will be added about the trip later.

Some learning experiences from our trip:
1) It was very dry this time of year and most of the waterfalls had little water going over them as you can see from the pictures. A visit to the waterfalls in the spring would be worthwhile.
2) Most scenic views are from the rim trails.
3) Hiking within the gulf is very rugged, the trails are not smooth, and there are few sources of water so plan ahead.

The Savage Ranger Station is on the eastern edge of the Natural Area and this is where we began our trip by hiking into the Savage Falls Campground a mile and a half from the Ranger Station. If you arrive late in the day then there is a campground at the Ranger Station too as hiking after dark is not permitted. We were able to get water from the creek above Savage Falls.

We used the north rim trail to get to Hobbs Cabin. From the Savage Falls Campground this was about a 7.5 mile hike but included another sidehike/view of Savage Falls from the north rim and several overlooks over Savage Gulf as seen in the pictures below.

Hobbs Cabin is a log cabin with fireplace, six bunks, and a table. A nearby spring is the water source although it wasn't flowing but did have a pool that we could obtain water from for cooking and refilling up our water bottles. There are also tent sites and a nice grassy area around the cabin for placing extra tents too and a big fire ring outside the cabin to build a nice campfire in, which we did. Mike and Trent, some former scouts from the Nashville area, came in behind us here and tent camped for the night while we tried the bunks in the cabin - was a good night's sleep!

This turned out to be our most rugged day. Only 8.7 miles but the trail was extremely rocky and the footing tricky plus there turned out to be only one good source of water along the trail at a spring (Schwoon Spring) that was .3 miles off the trail as we stopped at the Saw Mill Camp for a pack break. We took few pictures along this trail as we were hiking under the canopy of the trees all day and there were few scenic photos to take but it was a very interesting hike.

We had intentions of backpacking on to Alum Gap Campground on the western side of Savage Gulf Natural Area but due to sore knees and feet from the day before we set up camp at the Stone Door Ranger Station Campground and day hiked on Thursday instead. We hiked back to Stone Door in the sunshine to get some pictures, hiked to Laurel Falls, part way to Alum Gap on the Big Creek Rim Trail, then drove around to a trail access to Greeter Falls and hiked in from there to upper and lower Greeter Falls. Greeter Falls was a treat as it had the most water going over them and the lower Greeter Falls was the largest water fall that we visited. The trail also went on around past Boardtree Falls but here it was dry except for a very small trickle.