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See For Yourself: Our
Beautiful Place
Tennessee Wilderness Photographs,
Savage Gulf & Fiery Gizzard, Foster Falls and South Cumberland State
Park
A picture may be worth a thousand words
but a visit is worth a thousand pictures. Those of us who live
close to the Park have the distinct pleasure and advantage of seeing
this wonderful place as the seasons change. Snows may only last a
few hours or days, flowers only a few days or weeks, Fall colors only a
few weeks or a month......but the memories can last a lifetime.
The goal of the Friends is to help
preserve and protect the wilderness experience that the Park represents
so that it will last for many lifetimes, hopefully forever. In
today's world of rapid development, demographic shifts that bring new
people to the Plateau, climate change, population growth and declining
biodiversity, this is a daunting challenge. That is why your
membership is so important. We, and the Park, need all the
help and the friends we can have. Please
join us today. The Friends Saving Great
Spaces Campaign is working to preserve and protect the boundaries of the
Park by acquiring lands to buffer the wilderness character of the Park
from development and pine monoculture. Watch the Campaign video and
download the Campaign brochure from the links at the top left of this
page.
A photo of lower Greeter Falls taken by James Russ.
Pine beetles are killing non-native hybrid pine monoculture tree farms
all around the Park and throughout the Cumberland Plateau. This
beetle infested clear cut is between Savage and Collins Gulfs on the
Park boundary. These dead zones force greater numbers of deer and
other animals into the Park for forage and shelter stressing the Park
ecology, create fire hazards, and significantly degrade both the
watershed and the local ecology of the area surrounding the Park.
Pine monoculture is an unnatural and unsustainable manmade disruption of
the mixed mesophytic hardwood forests that are native to the Plateau.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of acres of pine monoculture
dead or dying on the Plateau. The Friends Saving Great Spaces
Campaign is working to preserve and protect the boundaries of the Park
by acquiring lands to buffer the wilderness character of the Park from
development and pine monoculture. Watch the Campaign video and
download the Campaign brochure from the links at the top left of this
page. Photo by Ted LaRoche October 2003. Commentary by Ron
Castle
Taken just past the junction of the Little and Big Fiery Gizzard Creeks
on August 12, 2007. We took a break on the rocks overlooking this spot
which is only about 15' high, but falls into a 10' crevice. Not as
spectacular as many spots but just as beautiful. A peaceful spot.
Submitted by Rob and Lynn Moreland Friends members.
Friends president Latham Davis looks on as Ron Castle presents the Jim
Prince Award to Friends president Latham Davis looks on as Ron Castle
presents the Jim Prince Award to Glenn Himebaugh, Friends historian and
past newsletter editor during the Friends of SCSRA Annual Meeting held
June 23, 2007.
Nancy and Henry Crais enjoy their grandchildren during the Friends of
South Cumberland Annul Meeting picnic.
The Friends of South
Cumberland held their annual meeting at the park visitors center on
Saturday, June 23. About 100 people attended. The Bannazia! Band
entertained during the picnic, followed by a program on raptor birds.
During the meeting, Friends member Glenn Himebaugh was presented with
the Jim Prince Award for his years of service to the organization.
Members were brought up-to-date about park improvements and were
encouraged to attend Cumberland Wild, to be held at the Beersheba
Springs Hotel on Saturday, July 14. The focus of that event will be
ecotourism. There will be displays and sale of crafts. Local bands
Throwing Down and Sarah Mallory will perform.
The SpThe spiral staircase was replaced that leads to lower Greeter
Falls. Barrett Construction did the work and 327.15 funds paid for it.
Spring 2007
March 31, 2007 Easter Egg Hunt at South Cumberland State Recreation
Area sponsored by the Friends group.
These photos of Savage Gulf were taken less than two miles from the pine
clearcut above. A group of Friends members, led by State
Naturalist Mack Prichard, obtained a special permit to enter the 700
acres of old growth forest in Savage Gulf in October 2003. Several
of the trees measured by the group exceeded 13 feet in circumference and
some are estimated to be more than 500 years old. Less than 1
percent of forest in the eastern United States is categorized as old
growth. Old growth forest is characterized by a high enveloping
canopy, significant open space and visibility at the forest floor, and
biodiversity 7 to 10 times or greater than a pine tree farm. The
Friends Saving Great Spaces Campaign is working to preserve and protect
the boundaries of the Park by acquiring lands to buffer the wilderness
character of the Park from development and pine monoculture. Watch
the Campaign video and download the Campaign brochure from the links at
the top left of this page. NOTE that a special permit is
required to enter Savage Gulf and other off trail areas of the Park.
Photos by Ted LaRoche October 2003.
Commentary by Ron Castle.
Wiley Sullivan of Farmersville, TX submitted these photos taken during
his recent hiking and camping trip at Savage Gulf with his family over
the Thanksgiving holiday. He said it got down to 15 degrees one
night but everyone had a great time.
Wiley Sullivan of Farmersville, TX submitted these photos taken of
Savage Gulf in 1982 on a hike with his Boy Scout troop from Nashville.
He is bringing his family to hike and camp at Savage Gulf during the
Thanksgiving holiday to introduce them to this beautiful wilderness area
that he experienced as a boy.
The new plaque honoring
the Boyd-Werner family is now in place along the Fiery Gizzard trail.
The original plaque was stolen in 2005.
Alum Gap - photo submitted by Steve Irwin
May 2006 at Foster Falls
- photos submitted by Jason Green
Alex Manikowski climbing Foster Falls
Bumblebee Moth
April 2, 2006 Collins
Gulf Wildflower Hike - photos submitted by Friends Member Eric Dempsey
Horsepound Falls
Suter Falls
Jim Vibbart and his
family from Michigan, wife Carol, daughter Julie and Nelle a foreign
exchange student from Germany who has been living with them for the past
year, spent the last week of March visiting the Cumberland Plateau
again. They found many beautiful wild flowers making their
appearance as well as an unusually shaped tree root which they say
exemplifies their love for their favorite hiking trail, the Fiery
Gizzard. The Vibbart family are Friends members.
December 2005 and
January 2006 on the Fiery Gizzard - photos submitted by Jim Vibbart
A photo from an expedition over the weekend. This is from Tommy Point on
the North rim of Savage Gulf. Stone Door can clearly be seen 4 miles in
the distance. Seven miles from the ranger station, this is one of my
favorite spots in the park.
Proud member of the Friends of SCSRA
Eric Dempsey - November 2005
Below are a couple photos of a timber
rattler that I ran into on May 22. I was leaving the Greeter Falls
area and descending down into the Big Creek basin. That portion of
the trail that you descend pretty quickly on and the creek is running
just alongside the trail, not far from Alum Gap. Ken Cowan - May
2005
Timber Rattlesnake
Fence Lizard
New bridge built by The South Cumberland Wilderness Association
Bud Werner and his group, The South Cumberland Wilderness Association,
have competed construction of the bridge shown in the picture above. It
involved carrying the materials down the 180 foot bluff (18 story
building) to build it with an estimated 70 man hours per person.
The bridge is located just past the Small Wilds area going down the
steep bluff (180 feet) towards Ravens Point. 3+ miles from Foster Falls.
I live near the Collins
Gulf Access. I am fairly new to long day hikes. I found your tips on the
'Friends' site to be very helpful. Just this week I went on a solo day
hike from Collins Gulf Access to Stone Door. This was a rough, but very
amazing and enjoyable trip. I have attached some pictures from my hike.
Thanks for posting such great information. Eric Dempsey - January
2005
  
Schoon Cave
Schoon Spring
Suter Falls
Photos submitted by
Terry & Pamela Zimmerman
October 2004
Terry
at Greeter Falls Terry & Pamela Zimmerman
Terry on the Big Creek Rim Trail
Photos submitted by John
Richardson
Boardtree Falls
Upper Boardtree Falls
Greeter Falls
Bridal Veil Falls
1st snow near Alum Gap Campground
Deerlick Falls
Deerlick Falls
Little Fiery Creek in the Fiery Gizzard Gulf by Friends
board member Scott May, taken on Memorial Day 2004.
Horsepound Falls in glorious spring flow by Friends
board member Latham Davis
Heading down the Stone Door by Sandy Newkirk
16 shot composite panorama of Foster Falls by Roy Jones
Foster Falls and New Bridge by Friends board member Scott May from Memphis
Board Member, Gray Campbell, and Friends
President, Scott May, lead Memphis guests on hike to Greeter Falls; they
are shown ascending the very unusual, 30+ foot tall, brass rail spiral
staircase (built by Park employees) used to access the falls. (7-30-04)
Spring flower photos
submitted by May B. Woods.
Crested Dwarf
Iris Large-flowered Trillium
Small Yellow Lady's Slipper
Pictures wanted. We would
like for this to be a dynamic display of the Park. Email your
digital images or snail mail your photos and we will get you published.
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