Some of Big South Fork National Park and Pickett State Park in N. TN

[OwenM]

Tuesday, December 18.
Big South Fork National Park.
I spoke to a ranger at a visitor center, and he suggested my route, plus that I check out Pickett State Park for a place to stay nearby. He also gave me some very bad, and time consuming directions, since Twin Arch is .7 miles from a TH that I could have driven to in about ten minutes, so I did 7 extra miles of hiking to see the arches, instead of 1.4. It was a great hike, though, so no complaints. I'm doing pics of the arches, but am only posting a complete trail report of the Honey Creek Loop hike I did on Wednesday. Otherwise, reading this thread would take longer than hiking to the arches

Slave Falls to Charit Creek Trail connecting to the Twin Arch loop.

Needle Arch

[youtube]Kj-x5-fRQvg[/youtube]

Slave Falls

[youtube]Sw_lv5vFqVU[/youtube]

North Twin Arch

[youtube]tK1M_LDFBYY[/youtube]

South Twin Arch appears smaller in span(nomenclature fail, I suppose), but much more massive. So massive I couldn't get it in a pic without going downhill so far that the trees obscured the view of it.
The smaller appearing span is not borne out in the listed measurements, though, so I guess they go by more than appearances:foot:
From the NPS site:
In most dimensions, South Arch is the larger of the two. At one point, the deck is 103 feet(31.4 meters) high with a clearance of about70 feet (21.3 meters). North Arch, in contrast, has a height of about 62 feet (18.9 meters)with a 51 foot (15.5 meter) clearance. Each arch is a major topographic feature. On the north, South Arch blends into a rockshelter and a widened bedding plane. Thus, measuring the breadth of the span involves subjective judgment. The span is clearly greater than 135 feet (41.1 meters). North Arch has a more easily defined span, about 93 feet(28.3 meters). Each bridge has a near-perfect arch shape.

[youtube]U3heuKZnIMY[/youtube]
Due to a rather late start for the day after some back problems the night before, I ended up hiking out 4.8 miles in the dark.
I camped at nearby Pickett State Park, where I would also spend the first part of Wednesday morning.

Wednesday.
Pickett State Park.
Arch Lake, whose arch is actually a natural bridge(or I'm just confused about the nomenclature again) that connects the "mainland" to a an island.

Also at Pickett State Park, I visited Hazard Cave, and then the "Natural Bridge".

My camera got its modes switched when I put it in its case, and the pics of Natural Bridge came out...kind of horrible, mostly.

Video from the top of it:
[youtube]BUvPXUyh-Yc[/youtube]

 

[OwenM]

Leaving Pickett State Park, I briefly visited the East Rim Overlook before heading into a nearby town to eat on the way down to the Honey Creek Trailhead.

Part of the sign from the Honey Creek Loop TH

The trail starts out like a normal walk in the woods.

The terrain quickly shows signs of changing to something a bit more rocky.

Soon, it turns to walking along a drainage with many small cascades and waterfalls interspersed with climbs up to, and along, a rising cliffline.

Colorful rock formations with wildly varied shapes will become the norm throughout this hike.

Repeatedly descending into drainages, then climbing back to the rock walls will also become the norm.

[youtube]IHXcsIRUa2k[/youtube]

The trail is sometimes flat along the base of the cliffs, but because of the constant transition from high ground to waterways, the trail is usually at a fairly steep incline, or decline, depending on which way you're going.

Leaning cliff. This was like standing next to an ocean liner-has a bulge where the anchor would be near the bow and everything. I somehow accidentally deleted a bunch of pics from around this spot, which was a maze of large boulders, and very picturesque I stopped here for a short "break" climbing around on the boulders.

From this point there were also some views of the walls on the opposite side of the canyon.

But, the hike must go on...

 

[OwenM]

Soon I reached a set of ladders that climbed up to the top of the cliff line. There are a couple of these, then some wooden steps and more uphill trail which ends at Honey Creek Overlook.

At this point I thought the hike was over(you may read that again!). Between the terrain, and the extra time spent playing in the drainages, and taking pictures, it was easy to imagine that the supposed 5.6 miles of this loop were already done. Upon realizing there was a parking lot, and not the trailhead behind the overlook, and remembering a road sign that the lot was about a mile from the TH, I checked the map. It looked like I was only a third of the way through with the loop! So down the ladders I went.
What follows next is a steep and slippery descent all the way to the bottom of the canyon, and no pics were taken. I needed both my trekking poles, but it went quickly.

I had thought the trail would curve around and go right down to the river, but this was as close as it came.

There are few things I love more than following a streambed uphill, and going up this drainage is where everything gets more. More exciting, more rugged, more beautiful, more dangerous, and more FUN!
Nonstop cascades and waterfalls, boulder-hopping, climbing...it was fantastic.

Part of the time you're in the streambed, others you get diverted around, over, and sometimes under house-sized boulders

I really liked this, even if I had to get prone to get a pic under there!

It took a moment to realize some of that was root and not rock!

 

[OwenM]

Yes, this IS the trail!

Every now and then, you can even tell it's a trail!

After awhile, the trail climbs out of the drainage, and becomes "normal" again. And again, I think the hike must be over as the trail climbs back up to the upper cliffline.
I guess you could call this "Cairn Cave"...

But then it descends again, and things start to get interesting again!

This is Boulder House Falls. I have no idea why they'd call it that

I actually got lost here. It looked like the trail curved behind some boulders and headed downstream, so I headed downstream, too, just not on the "trail".

In a couple of minutes it becomes impassable. I cast about looking for sign where the apparent trail continued, and could find nothing, so decided to take a break before climbing back up the hill to see if things looked different, or the trail had spurred off without my noticing.

Somewhere along the way, I looked over, and there was a freaking sign with an arrow right there
It was on the left, and pointing upstream to a crack to the left of the Boulder House.
The next arrow was on a rock, and I guess it was fake, since all I could see at the back was a pile of rocks. The road to nowhere...

But there was another arrow.

Afterwards the trail begins to climb, and again, I'm sure the hike is over.

Nope..it heads downhill yet again. This time to what turns out to be Ice Castle Falls.

 

[OwenM]

So now it's over for sure.
Nothing else to see here..move along, go back to your truck.
The trail heads up across a slickrock section, the woods seem to thin, and I start to look for the outline of my truck against the sky through the tree trunks on the ridgeline above.

Wait..why am I going downhill again? It's already been 15 miles on this 5.6 mile loop-are you kidding?
Seriously, I'd been hearing a waterfall down below, and wondering if the trail might loop around to it. Sure enough, it does.
Rather steeply, at that! There's actually a little bridge just to the left of this slide, but I kept it out of the pic.

The trail winds around some walls into an undercut amphitheater which is the home of Honey Creek Falls.

Best I could do with the sun hammering down right on the edge.

I figured it was getting close to the end for real this time, and decided to take another break to ramble around some piles of debris, and just enjoy the waterfall for a few minutes.

Leaving Honey Creek Falls, the trail again begins to climb.

It also begins to look normal again.

And finally, a familiar sight.

 

[Sagebrusher]

Awesome photos. I hadn't heard of Big South Fork before. Looks like they have backcountry camping permits available... Backcountry Camping - Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area

Your trek through that stream "trail" reminds me of my slog through the French Creek canyon in Custer State Park.