Weekly Hike: Cravens House to Point Park

This was one of those days that felt like all the things were working against us. As we left our house, a friend messaged to say the road down the mountain was at a standstill and I should find another way. We have lived on our mountain for seven years now and it turns out I still get lost in neighborhoods. I spent five extra minutes trying to pick my way through a neighborhood to get to the W road. It was exasperating and made us a good 15 minutes late for our hike.

When we got close to the trailhead (a new one for me), I came up to a detour less than a quarter of a mile from where we needed to park. So another five minutes down the drain as I navigated around the detour. I was almost to the trailhead from the other side of the detour when I found myself stuck behind an excavator. I frantically called my friends to ask how they made it to the parking lot. They assured me that I just had to keep driving. We all had a good laugh as we finally pulled kids from cars and explained our mishaps before heading up the trail.

Life is just like that sometimes. Filled with obstacles and detours and wrong turns, exasperating us and making us frustrated. Thank goodness for good friends to encourage us along the way.

We finally started up the trail and everyone was in good spirits. The recent rains make everything exceptionally green right now in the mountains of the Tennessee Valley where we live. We hurried along the trail, stopping to talk about different plants as we walked.

 

One of the moms in our group recently introduced us to an app called SEEK and we love to pull it out and learn about different species of things as we walk. There was a particular fungi growing on the side of a rock that we stopped to check out. The underside was black and velvety and the top just looked like a leaf. The app said it was Smooth Rock Tripe. It was a cool discovery and we were all amazed that the app was able to identify it.

We pressed on to the top of a set of stairs that led to Point Park and enjoyed the amazing views of the Tennessee River and the city of Chattanooga. We watched hawks sore and occasionally dive out of the sky in search of food. I could sit here all afternoon.

But Wednesdays are busy days, so we snapped our pictures and turned back. Half of the group went back the way we came because we thought it was a shorter route, while half of us continued on to finish the loop. Had we had more time we could have gone on to Sunset Rock. We will save that for another hike when we aren't short on time.

 

We came across a bird that none of us had observed before. It had a white breast with brown and black. We checked our app and learned that it was an Eastern Towhee. I will be on the look for them in our yard now that I know what they are.

 

 

It was a perfect afternoon for a hike. Sunny but not too hot. And a nice breeze when we were at the top. These weekly hikes are such a blessing to our family. We just continue to be grateful for this time spent in nature with our friends each week. 

This was our 36th hike for 2021 (36/52). We knocked out 3 miles bringing us to 111.5 miles hiked this year.   

 

 

National Parks: Point Park on Lookout Mountain

Did you get the chance to take advantage of free admission to a National Park over the weekend?

We did.

We happen to live about 15 minutes from Point Park – a National Military Park located on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga.

Point Park is a ten-acre memorial park that overlooks the Lookout Mountain Battlefield and the city of Chattanooga.

Once inside, a paved path circles the park with views of Chattanooga and the Tennessee River below.

In the center of the park is the New York Peace Memorial, which was erected by the state of New York as a tribute to peace and reconciliation between Union and Confederate veterans after the war.

At the actual point of the mountain, you can explore the Ochs Memorial Observatory.

We were able to pick out our mountain from the several vantage points on Point Park, which is fun to point out to Jack.

Also, from the point you can also choose to access several of the trails located on Lookout Mountain.

We had planned to do the hike from Lookout Point to Sunset Rock back in January, but the park was closed the day we visited. So we did the eighth of a mile hike to Sunset Rock from a parking area instead.

Thankfully the day we visited Point Park, it wasn't very crowded – which was nice. We were able to walk the grounds at our leisure and snap the photos we wanted.

Jack's favorite things were the cannons. He had to look at every single one.

I carried Isaac for this trip. I think he would have preferred to walk around, but sometimes it's just easier to hang on to little ones at this stage. 

We also had several talks with Jack about the importance of staying away from the edge and listening to us at all times.

It was really hot and humid on our afternoon visit, so we were excited to stop at Clumpies Ice Cream before making our way back to our car.

Jack informed us that his ice cream was Batman Good which means extra, super good. It's no secret that Isaac loves food and he was very demanding that we share our ice cream with him!

It was good to get outside and spend some time together as a family – we were couped up last week due to illness, so it was a much needed change of pace!

Normally admission to the park is $5/adult and children under the age of 15 are free. Parking can be found outside of the gate (I saw one free lot and the rest were metered parking). You can also ride the Incline Railway from St. Elmo to the top of the mountain and take a 5-minute walk to Point Park.