Les Jones

Travel > Hwy 27, Part 2: Stinging Fork Pocket Wilderness

Read Part 1, our trip to Dayton, Tennessee, home of the Scopes monkey trial.

"Pocket wilderness" seems to be a term of art of the Bowater paper mills. They're small, privately-owned nature preserves that were so pretty even the timber beasts of the paper mill couldn't bear to log them. I've been to Honey Creek Pocket Wilderness and Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness, both of which are also on the Cumberland Plateau, and they were two of the best hikes I've ever experienced.

As part of our trip to Dayton we had originally planned to do an eight mile hike at North Chickamauga Pocket Wilderness, which is south of Dayton on US27. Time was slipping away, and there was a threat of thunderstorms. The idea of getting caught out in a thunderstorm late in the day on an eight mile hike didn't appeal to us, so we checked our map and book and decided to hike the three mile Stinging Fork Pocket Wilderness.

The Stinging Fork Pocket Wilderness wasn't on the map and there were no signs on the highway. I found it listed in Russ Manning and Sondra Jamieson's book, Tennessee's South Cumberland. Since it isn't on any of the maps I had, I'll include the driving directions. From Dayton, travel north on US27 to Spring City. At Spring City turn right onto 68 North towards Crossville. Go 1.4 miles and turn left onto Shut-in Gap Road. The trailhead is on the right at 4.9 miles. The Cumberland Trail Web site has a map and directions.

Spring City and especially Shut-in Gap Road are what you might call economically depressed. As Jay joked, "How many meth labs do you think there are in a five mile radius?"

When we left the car we locked everything in the trunk. The one time my car has ever been broken into was on an overnight hike at the Fiery Gizzard Trail, which was another destination in Manning and Jamieson's South Cumberland book. While I was at it, I slipped a .38 in my pocket. I have a Tennessee handgun carry permit, and since this isn't a park (where carry isn't allowed in Tennessee) and there wasn't a sign prohibiting carry, I figured I was legally in the clear to pack. And if not - ha! ha!! I'm just kidding about the .38, Johnny Law.

Manning and Jamieson's trail description begins "Enter the woods to the left of the pocket wilderness sign and walk through a planted pine forest along a moss-lined trail trimmed with mountain laurel." The book was published in 1994. Between then and now the area along the road had been logged. Here's what it looks like now.

The first part of the trail was bordered by delicious blackberries that were just coming into season. At what the book says is the one mile mark (less, in our opinion), the trail comes to a junction. We took the left turn to Indian Point. It's supposedly an overlook, but in the summer at least there's too much foliage to see the water, so back the other way we went to the falls. The trail is well-marked with white paint blazes and blue or green metal blazes.

 

The falls are a long series of shelves composed of layered stone. As the falls curl around the gorge, they descend and you can see the layers stacked on top of one another.

Other waterfall hikes in the area

Stinging Falls was fine, but there are better waterfalls in safer areas nearby. Just a few miles north towards Crossville is the town of Piney Flats. Follow the signs at the elementary school to Piney Falls. Manning and Jamieson list the mileage as 0.7 miles, and I do remember it being a short hike. The biggest challenge was driving to the trailhead. I used an old Toyota Corolla I didn't care anything about, but a four wheel drive would be better. If you don't have a 4WD and you like your car, consider hiking all or part of the one mile access road to the trailhead.

The trail to Piney Falls comes to an intersection. The left branch goes to the top of the lower falls where there's a scenic overlook. The right branch goes to the bottom of the upper falls where there's an excellent pool for swimming.

Ozone Falls is an even shorter hike just off of I-40 at exit 338. Drive south on Highway 299 to US70, turn right, and go 4.4 miles to the town of Ozone. You probably won't even need those directions. As I recall the route is well-marked with road signs. The walk is just a quarter mile and the falls are extremely pretty.

Bonus - Rich Stevenson's Tennessee waterfall photos are absolutely stunning. He has pictures of the Upper and Lower Piney Falls, Ozone Falls, and many others on the plateau and in the Smokies. After seeing his picture below of Burgess Falls I'm on a mission to visit Burgess Falls State Park in Sparta.