Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Cumberland Falls

Saturday morning was crisp and clear after the Friday of threatening tornados.
J. proposed that we drive to Cumberland Falls, about an hour away, to view the waterway
during its spring spate.
We collected Devin, drove  into town for gas and were on our way.
Going through the junction and into Columbia we noted that damage from the storm seemed  limited to some broken windows and chipped and dented house siding, some torn roofing; quite a few cars and pickups parked alongside homes and shops were adorned with smashed windshields and sizeable dents. 
This was from the hail which ranged from a few minutes of a marble-sized pelting here to larger than golf ball poundings which occurred a short distance away.
I ducked out of the carport during the storm to take a photo of small hailstones rolling about in the herb garden; the photo was badly out of focus and I didn't save it.
Our local on-line 'magazine' posted' many photos of hail that looked like large frozen snowballs.

We visited Cumberland Falls two years ago in early summer. A large river tumbling over a rock formation is always impressive.
The river as is is now, roaring down its channel bringing mud and debris from miles above is a formidable sight, roiled and dirty.

There are walkways formed of large rock shelves which take visitors along the riverbed beyond the tumble of the falls. There are handrails and sections of sturdy metal barricade for safety.
Much of the path follows huge overhangs of layered rock which create dark low-ceilinged shallow 'caves.'
One can imagine travelers and hunters of bygone years following the river course and perhaps taking shelter for a night under these massive ledges, a fire built on the flat expanse of rock and gravel at the front.
An appalling amount of garbage had come downstream and washed onto the boulder-strewn river banks, catching in low-hanging branches.
A sign stated that the trash came from up-river and that as soon as lowered water brought a measure of safety, crews would be at work to snag and remove the garbage.
That said, we were not prepared to encounter the carcass of a cow lodged in an inlet, wedged about with branches and debris among the rocks!  Arrgh!
Need I say we did not take photos!

We took turns posing for a photo.
My camera didn't do well with the extreme contrast of the dark over-hanging rocks and the dazzle of sun on flung water.

Looking back at the falls from a curve in the pathway.

I tried several 'fixes' on this photo--still not good--too much white light in the background.
Still, it serves as a  reminder of the excursion.
We made our way out of the park [Daniel Boone National Forest] and stopped at a Subway shop.
It seemed I was just unwrapping my turkey sub and J. had taken a few bites of his favorite tuna on whole wheat when we noted that D. was clearing up his napkins and wrappers--he had finished a 'foot-long' pizzza sub while we were getting started!

Blogger has been incredibly slow to load photos for my last several posts.
Since I create my posts late in the evening as a rule, I gave up when an hour passed and only one photo out of six had appeared. Hopefully what passes as 'normal service' with blogger will soon resume.

11 comments:

  1. exciting photos of the swirling river. Nature is scary in it's power.

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  2. I remember Daniel Boone National Forest and Cumberland Falls well. We rented a cabin on the river one year. One of my favorite places.

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  3. Beautiful area of the country. Glad to see all are safe from the weather!

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  4. I am fascinated by extremes of weather and would have loved to have visited Cumberland Falls with the enraged river thrashing its way downstream. We get it with the Cothi when it's in spate, and it's scary just watching it.

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  5. What an impressive river. Such force swirling right along.

    Great pics.

    FlowerLady

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  6. It is good to know that you are safe after we heard of the tornadoes in recent days.

    The river in spate must have been very dramatic. A reminder of the immense power of nature.

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  7. There was surely nothing calming or peaceful about being near the water during this time of spring flood. The trash stewed along the river banks was very disheartening, but the sun was bright and we needed a brief change of scene. It was a good outing.

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  8. Waters in flood can be a roiling, broiling, swirling mass - not to mention the noise. Sort of exciting and frightening at the same time. But it must have been a nice change of pace.

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  9. My late husband's family lived in McCreary County, so we always made a visit to Cumberland Falls when we traveled down from Cincinnati. A beautiful place.
    Lillian
    lillianscupboard.wordpress.com

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  10. Glad the bad storms gave you a miss, I thought about you on Saturday. You have such a lovely "army" of cats!

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  11. The river looks spectacular - it must be scary to be in an area that suffers tornados. The size of the hailstones is amazing. We saw some of the devastation on TV.

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