Monday, June 13, 2016

50 Must-Do Adventures in Chattanooga

Great post on Roots Rated--
Play Chattanooga ratings and write-ups soon on some of these outdoor adventures!

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Foster Falls

PICNIC? yes! 
SWIMSUIT? yes!
COST? none
PLAYGROUND? no
AUTHOR'S RATING? five out of five stars!
HOURS? sunrise to sunset

Last summer we took family to Foster Falls to hike and see the falls. 

Here's the map of the trails around the pool where the falls are. The big loop is a really long trail. We hiked from the parking lot to the right around the pool and made it to where the two trails get very near. (That was about a mile away from the parking lot.) There is a way to get from one side to the other there, but you have to do some pretty advanced climbing/scrambling. We hiked to the right of the circle first,

and found a great stream to start our wading in and to eat our picnic by.


The kids caught crawdads.

We hiked more around the rim and then backtracked around to the falls.


The hike down to the falls is a rocky staircase,

and a cool swinging bridge.

The falls are amazing! I wasn't planning to swim, but got in the water anyway. All of us swam under the falls, which is extremely exhilarating. The kids swam across and under the falls using swim rings. The water is COLD, but refreshing, and being out in the middle of the pool with the cliffs going up around you is am awe-inspiring experience.