Once again in the Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness: a 10,000-acre

area donated by Bridgestone/Firestone to the state of Tennessee. I'm grateful

to the company for doing such a fine thing; they didn’t have to do it.

This time I started at the trailhead of the Yellow Bluff Trail.

As the sign indicates, I visited the Yellow Bluff

Overlook; the Boar Hog Gap Overlook; Honey

Pond; and arrived at the junction of the Polly

Branch Falls Trail. Since I've already been to

the Polly Branch Falls, once I got to that trail

junction, I took a short spur trail to see the Bee

Branch Overlook, just because I've never been

there.

Because there isn't any loop trail to bring me

back to my car at this trailhead, I had to turn

around and return via the Yellow Bluff Trail.

The entire round trip was about 5 miles, so it

wasn't too bad a hike.

Just a short walk along the trail and I came to

the Yellow Bluff Overlook. The view is great.

Photos never seem to be able to capture just how far above the valley floor

you are. That's the Caney Fork river below, and it is a long way down.

Here's a more close-up image of the river below. A lot of it looks white, and that is not just because of the distance or the reflection of the light on its surface.

This section of the Caney Fork really shows why it's called "white water." It's paradise for kayakers who love to shoot the rapids.

This photo shows an even closer telescopic

view. It's great to have a rainy Winter

and Spring to raise the level of the lakes

and rivers. I read a blog of a hiker who

described hiking in the DRY river bed two

summers ago when we were in severe drought.

And later in the year, when I hiked here, the

river was just a trickle and nothing like this

at all.