Burgess Falls State Park near Cookeville - My Favorite Park!

Having grown up in Tennessee, I've done a lot of hiking and visited a lot of parks.  To this day, my favorite park to escape to is Burgess Falls State Park. Lucky for me, this beautiful state park is only 13 miles from Cookeville. Five minutes down the main hiking trail and all the stress of the work day melts away.  You can see why in this picture:

Do you see what I mean? Right at the beginning of the trail head you have mini-waterfalls. Take another 20 steps and you are enveloped in the lush greenness of the Tennessee forest.

The trail follows along the river and takes you across interesting remnants of old bridges from days long past.

The trail is a combination of bluff top trails, overhanging rock faces, mini-bridges, and stairs. Lots of stairs.

One of the really cool aspects of this park is the reward factor. You hike along for a while, and then something wonderful suddenly appears.  Keep going, and there's something even better. Eventually, a grand finale.  Here's the next reward up from the baby falls at the trail head:

This is the view from the overlook of the middle falls.  Are you ready for the grand finale?  Here it comes, The big falls!

and another view:

We've had tons of rain this spring, so the falls were really roaring yesterday when I hiked out there with one of my best friends.  Now you might think since this is the "grand finale" that I don't have anything else to show you.  Not So.  For the adventurous soul, there's always the hike to the bottom of the falls.  It's steep and becomes a bit more like rock climbing than hiking. Here's a view of the falls from the side on the way down.

The water was coming down with such force that we were soaked to the bone from the mist. Actually, the mist was more like standing out in a hurricane yesterday.

The wind was whipping the mist with such force that I had to turn back. As you can see, the rocks down the cliff face were too wet to continue.  When I turned around to go back, there was my sweet friend Candy standing in the middle of a rainbow.

Candy has been one of my best friends since childhood, and I love her to bits.

Well, that concludes my tour of Burgess Falls State Park.  When I have clients come to tour Cookeville and look at Real Estate, I always encourage them to visit this park. It's one of those things you absolutely MUST SEE if you visit Cookeville Tennessee.

Click here for additional information about the Burgess Falls State Park.