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- Oct 26, 2000
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The Walls of Jericho State Park, Jackson County, AL(there is also a parking lot, foot and horseback trailheads, and campsite just over the TN state line).
Some info patchworked from a state park website page:
-In the late 1700s, Davy Crockett explored the area since his family owned land there. A traveling minister came upon the Walls of Jericho in the late 1800s and was so captivated by the cathedral-like beauty that he declared it needed a biblical name and the name stuck. Today, visitors continue to be drawn to the grandeur of the narrow gorge. You can travel to the bottom of its 50-yard-wide limestone bowl and look up at 200-foot-tall cliffs on each side. In a heavy rain, water shoots out of holes and cracks in the rock. Flora and fauna are abundant.
-The gorge is just one piece of The Walls of Jericho tract, which was purchased by the State of Alabama’s Forever Wild Land Trust, with the help of The Nature Conservancy in 2004, as part of its mandate to acquire land for public use. The entire tract of land is comprised of 21,453 acres-12,510 acres in Alabama and 8,943 acres in Tennessee. The only public access to the land is in Jackson County, Alabama. The property adjoins the Skyline Wildlife Management Area. A 100-mile trail system is presently in the planning stages, expanding future opportunities to enjoy the tract's many features.
-The upper Paint Rock River watershed, which harbors the Walls of Jericho, supports a diverse array of wildlife, including salamanders, 100 species of fish, 45 species of mussel and plenty of birds. Most notable:
The rare Tennessee cave salamander, which can be found only in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia
Five globally imperiled mussels and 12 globally rare mussels are found in the Paint Rock River and its tributaries.
The pale lilliput and Alabama lampshell mussel-this is the only place in the world where they exist.
The federally endangered palezone shiner is a fish confined to the Paint Rock River and one stream in Kentucky.
Three globally imperiled fish, the sawfin shiner, blotchside logperch and the federally threatened snail darter are found in the Paint Rock River.
-The Walls of Jericho is also perfect for photographers. Some unique flowers and trees to capture on film or with a digital camera include the yellow lady slipper, pink lady slipper, showy orchid, nodding trillium, smoke tree, yellow buckeye and basswood.
-Birdwatchers will enjoy seeing migratory songbirds, such as the cerulean warbler, and nonmigratory birds, such as the ruffed grouse.
-Jackson County also has the highest concentration of caves of any county in the United States and is a well-known destination for spelunkers from across the United States.
Headed up there Wednesday morning, drove around, checked out the campsite at the trailhead after talking to a couple there who I would later leapfrog several times between playing off the trail and hiking on the trail. The midday sun wreaked havoc with most of my pictures. If any of them look interesting, image search google for "walls of Jericho, AL", as I found a bunch of good ones. Here is a page someone made for their winter hike when there was apparently plenty of water(since some of the same falls were dry when I was there). http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=112992
The frozen waterfall pics are really cool, and he has a wide angle shot of the cathedral that shows it much better than any of mine could.
Today was a bust for me, as I suffered a gastronomic issue of astronomic proportions(that's all the detail you want), was up most of the night, dehydrated and pretty queasy this morning. It took me awhile to be willing to leave my campsite and get on the road.
Fortunately, I'd decided to do the hike to the Walls yesterday, and do the separate Bear Den trail today, so maybe I didn't miss much.
The trail to the Walls is mostly through open forest, though the degree of ground clutter changes dramatically throughout, as does the severity of the trail. The trip in is downhill over a series of switchbacks, features a couple of bridges from downed trees with added handrails at Hurricane and Turkey Creek, then flattens at a wide meadow. I got to see bees and butterflies competing over who got to pollinate what. The bees always won, buzzing in and knocking the butterflies off, then chasing them around. Never saw anything like that before.
There is a primitive campground with several sites there, along with the Clarke Cemetery, which has mostly stone markers with initials carved in them, though most are unreadable. The one sizable stone with writing is faded now, too-date of death 1884. The trail becomes steep and rocky again as it goes up and down along the side of the cliffs following the water. I kept getting glimpses of the creek through the trees, and eventually lost my reserve and made my way down there. Very pretty, with lots of rocks, and tree-covered slopes backed by cliffs on both sides. The source of the water is at the Walls, and the trail ends there at the "Cathedral" with a series of small falls, one set coming directly from a cave. You then climb a small wall into a higher section, at the back of which is the "Grotto" a big hole formed by a waterfall at the top(which was dry today). There is also a stream of water coming out of the rock at the bottom, as well. Several aquifers(for lack of a better term) along the way teeming with tadpoles.
The return hike was the same in reverse, but much more challenging, since the last couple of miles are all uphill, with even the switchbacks being pretty steep. I made it worse by trying to make a workout out of it, and trying to maintain a faster pace going up than I did going down. Had to stop and rest after getting overheated, and downed a quart and a half of water vs. 2-3 sips going in. May have contributed to my getting sick late last night. Wasn't bad after I decided to just walk, duh.
Because my pics came out so badly, I'll just throw in a few random ones, including a couple of small cave entrances, and some local wildlife.
What have we here, in this suspicious-looking declavity?
Some info patchworked from a state park website page:
-In the late 1700s, Davy Crockett explored the area since his family owned land there. A traveling minister came upon the Walls of Jericho in the late 1800s and was so captivated by the cathedral-like beauty that he declared it needed a biblical name and the name stuck. Today, visitors continue to be drawn to the grandeur of the narrow gorge. You can travel to the bottom of its 50-yard-wide limestone bowl and look up at 200-foot-tall cliffs on each side. In a heavy rain, water shoots out of holes and cracks in the rock. Flora and fauna are abundant.
-The gorge is just one piece of The Walls of Jericho tract, which was purchased by the State of Alabama’s Forever Wild Land Trust, with the help of The Nature Conservancy in 2004, as part of its mandate to acquire land for public use. The entire tract of land is comprised of 21,453 acres-12,510 acres in Alabama and 8,943 acres in Tennessee. The only public access to the land is in Jackson County, Alabama. The property adjoins the Skyline Wildlife Management Area. A 100-mile trail system is presently in the planning stages, expanding future opportunities to enjoy the tract's many features.
-The upper Paint Rock River watershed, which harbors the Walls of Jericho, supports a diverse array of wildlife, including salamanders, 100 species of fish, 45 species of mussel and plenty of birds. Most notable:
The rare Tennessee cave salamander, which can be found only in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia
Five globally imperiled mussels and 12 globally rare mussels are found in the Paint Rock River and its tributaries.
The pale lilliput and Alabama lampshell mussel-this is the only place in the world where they exist.
The federally endangered palezone shiner is a fish confined to the Paint Rock River and one stream in Kentucky.
Three globally imperiled fish, the sawfin shiner, blotchside logperch and the federally threatened snail darter are found in the Paint Rock River.
-The Walls of Jericho is also perfect for photographers. Some unique flowers and trees to capture on film or with a digital camera include the yellow lady slipper, pink lady slipper, showy orchid, nodding trillium, smoke tree, yellow buckeye and basswood.
-Birdwatchers will enjoy seeing migratory songbirds, such as the cerulean warbler, and nonmigratory birds, such as the ruffed grouse.
-Jackson County also has the highest concentration of caves of any county in the United States and is a well-known destination for spelunkers from across the United States.
Headed up there Wednesday morning, drove around, checked out the campsite at the trailhead after talking to a couple there who I would later leapfrog several times between playing off the trail and hiking on the trail. The midday sun wreaked havoc with most of my pictures. If any of them look interesting, image search google for "walls of Jericho, AL", as I found a bunch of good ones. Here is a page someone made for their winter hike when there was apparently plenty of water(since some of the same falls were dry when I was there). http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=112992
The frozen waterfall pics are really cool, and he has a wide angle shot of the cathedral that shows it much better than any of mine could.
Today was a bust for me, as I suffered a gastronomic issue of astronomic proportions(that's all the detail you want), was up most of the night, dehydrated and pretty queasy this morning. It took me awhile to be willing to leave my campsite and get on the road.
Fortunately, I'd decided to do the hike to the Walls yesterday, and do the separate Bear Den trail today, so maybe I didn't miss much.
The trail to the Walls is mostly through open forest, though the degree of ground clutter changes dramatically throughout, as does the severity of the trail. The trip in is downhill over a series of switchbacks, features a couple of bridges from downed trees with added handrails at Hurricane and Turkey Creek, then flattens at a wide meadow. I got to see bees and butterflies competing over who got to pollinate what. The bees always won, buzzing in and knocking the butterflies off, then chasing them around. Never saw anything like that before.
There is a primitive campground with several sites there, along with the Clarke Cemetery, which has mostly stone markers with initials carved in them, though most are unreadable. The one sizable stone with writing is faded now, too-date of death 1884. The trail becomes steep and rocky again as it goes up and down along the side of the cliffs following the water. I kept getting glimpses of the creek through the trees, and eventually lost my reserve and made my way down there. Very pretty, with lots of rocks, and tree-covered slopes backed by cliffs on both sides. The source of the water is at the Walls, and the trail ends there at the "Cathedral" with a series of small falls, one set coming directly from a cave. You then climb a small wall into a higher section, at the back of which is the "Grotto" a big hole formed by a waterfall at the top(which was dry today). There is also a stream of water coming out of the rock at the bottom, as well. Several aquifers(for lack of a better term) along the way teeming with tadpoles.
The return hike was the same in reverse, but much more challenging, since the last couple of miles are all uphill, with even the switchbacks being pretty steep. I made it worse by trying to make a workout out of it, and trying to maintain a faster pace going up than I did going down. Had to stop and rest after getting overheated, and downed a quart and a half of water vs. 2-3 sips going in. May have contributed to my getting sick late last night. Wasn't bad after I decided to just walk, duh.
Because my pics came out so badly, I'll just throw in a few random ones, including a couple of small cave entrances, and some local wildlife.
What have we here, in this suspicious-looking declavity?
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