Frozen Head

D

Don M

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Apr 30, 2000
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My daughter and her husband, who have been living in my home for the last 8 months, will be leaving next week. She wanted to go for a hike her last Saturday here, so we decided to go to Frozen Head State Park. The initial plan was to have an easy day, hiking to Debord Falls and then to Emory Falls, then head back to a backcountry campsite where we have camped as a family before (and where she learned how to pee in the woods).

It has been an extraordinarily wet year here in east TN (tomato plants have just rotted, TVA reported hydropower generation for April-June was 239% of normal and all reservoirs are at full pool and spilling water as fast as they can), so I was expecting more water at the falls than we found, but it was still nice.

Debord falls, wife and daughter.



When the trail split to go to Emory Falls (nicer and larger than Debord) we decided instead to make a much longer hike of it and take a long loop up over the top of Frozen Head. The sky was too blue to miss the views on top, a nice break from the tropical pattern of nearly daily thunderstorms we have enjoyed all summer (including yesterday).

Nice stream we crossed, low water though.



At the Tubb Springs campsite. Very nice breeze to break the humidity. That is my Outback Oven with a batch of cinnamon rolls with orange glazing baking. A big hit.



Roasting marshmallows the lazy way. Because we took a much longer hike we did not have time to scrounge for wood and get a fire going, which we would have done if we had stuck with our original plan.



Views from the top.







This interesting block was all by itself on the top of a ridgeline. Nice and square edges. The geology is predominantly sandstone here.



Butterfly. The blue color on the lower part of the wings is washed out in this picture. It is a very pretty butterfly.



A boulder field. Sandstone covered with moss.



It was about 8 miles total, making a nice day hike. Definitely a good idea my daughter had.
 
Lots of water for this time of the year. I drove by the prison a few weeks ago. It is a bit outside my usual areas. The New River Hwy (Hwy 116) is one curvy mountain road.
 
A bittersweet moment, knowing that Sarah is leaving and your long-standing hiking pal will no longer be there. Kim will have to step up...

You can come with me any time if you bring that outback oven. And bring some of that rain, too, we could use it.
 
Some nice views there. Don't see much about Frozen Head, though I recognize the name from the map, and maybe saw a sign on the way to Big South Fork(?), where I should be headed again in about 10 days. Have to check it out some time. There's so much to see in central and east TN!
 
This is an old coal mining area of Tennessee and it has an interesting history along with Eastern KY. Mining is just about dead in TN and it is dying rapidly in KY and WV due to new EPA requirements for the end user (typically coal fired power plants).
 
Yes, my hiking buddy is leaving. Someone will have to step up. She has been to the Jumpoff in the Smokies with me, and liked it there.

This time of year many of the streams dry up. So even though there was not as much water as I was expecting, it was still a treat.

Owen, you should make your way up to Frozen Head. It has a lot more vertical relief than Big South Fork, with lots of trails. Many of your trip reports include waterfalls, so this might be a decent place for you. There are only two decent waterfalls that I know of in the park, Debord and Emory, but there are a lot of places to explore.

Here is Emory Falls on another trip there. It is probably twice the height (or more) of Debord. This picture was taken in winter (more water) from a spot farther from the falls to capture the lay of the land around it. There are a lot of boulders, and when the water is flowing there are a number of cascades below the falls. The second picture is the stream downstream of the falls.



 
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Thanks for sharing your pictures.

I'd love to visit there! Picture #10 looks like a bunch of poison ivy, so maybe a good winter destination. :thumbup:
 
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