A fall outdoors

Joshua Rosenberg

2020/11/16

I wrote a blog post more than a week ago on feeling like we’ve (started to) arrive to Knoxville; a big part of the reason why has been the chance to spend time as a family outdoors—a silver lining of a difficult year. I think one or two of these dates may be inaccurate by a day or two (I mainly used pictures and recordings from Strava to recall them), but, I spent a bit of time capturing our walks and hikes, all except for three (Mt. Sterling, AT around Hot Springs, and West Prong) either as a family or with my son, since the beginning of the fall semester. GSMNP = Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

DateTrailLocationMiles
11/15Mt Sterling LoopGSMNP16.72
11/14Norris DamNorris Dam State Park3.00
11/7Laurel Falls TrailGSMNP4.06
11/2Obed Point TrailObed4.36
10/31Seven IslandsSeven Islands State Park2.50
10/25Bote MountainGSMNP5.32
10/24Frozen HeadFrozen Head State Park2.50
10/23Seven Islands State ParkSeven Islands State Park2.50
10/17Emory FallsFrozen Head State Park2.85
10/9AT around Hot SpringsPisgah10.09
10/4Clingman’s Dome, ATGSMNP3.09
9/28Natural TunnelNatural Tunnel State Park2.30
9/22West ProngGSMNP4.00
9/20Sharp’s RidgeKnox4.00
9/12Seven Islands State ParkSeven Islands State Park2.50
8/30IjamsIjams2.00
8/23IjamsIjams2.00
8/20HastieWilliam Hastie3.00
8/16Middle ProngGSMNP3.19

It’s hard to pick a favorite, it would probably be Emory Falls; a perfect late afternoon Saturday hike with my little one. Another favorite was Obed Point Trail. Clingman’s Dome was fun, but a long drive (~ 1h 45m minutes, each way). A favorite hike that we didn’t make it to this fall was to Abrams Creek, only 50m from Knoxville but in the Smokies. I actually thought we went sometime in August, but could not find any record of it!

```me and joro by waterfall