SP Park Rating – Cumberland Mountain State Park (Crossville, TN)

A lovely, relaxed location on our way to the Smokey’s.

Link to campground here: Cumberland Mountain State Park
Link to map here: Cumberland Mountain State Park

  

1. Site Quality = 4.5/5
   We were very happy with the sites here. The main loops (2, 3 & 5) have large, flat, concrete pads with 30 AMP+water, a nice sitting area with picnic table, fire-pit and grill. The other loops (1 & 4) have more shaded, slightly smaller sites but still very nice. Loop 1 has some full hook-up, loop 4 is more primitive (15 AMP or no hookup). The coolest little touch…each site has its own (very own) little garbage bin which is emptied daily. Quite the fancy get-up!
2. Facilities = 4/5
   Very decent facilities. There’s hot showers and flush toilets, and they’re spotlessly clean (at least in our loop #5). The surrounding park has picnic areas, boating, fishing, dump station and even an on-site local restaurant where they serve a dish of the day (locally caught catfish is on Friday’s). Only ding…no laundry on-site.
3. Location = 4.5/5
   Excellent location here. You’re just a few miles from Crossville which is a very decent sized-town, yet you’re right in the middle of Cumberland Mountain and the forest. There’s lots of hiking trails right in the park, as well as boating and fishing on Byrd Lake.
4. Pet Friendliness = 5/5
   Another great park for doggie as with all state parks. Lots of space to hike, play and go in the water.

Overall Rating = 4.5
BONUS ALERT = Wooded & relaxed campground in the midst of Cumberland Plateau 

Summary: This was a lovely little campground which we stumbled across on our way to the Smokeys. We initially only planned 2 days, but enjoyed the area and the people so much that we stayed a week. Sites are large, flat and nicely separated with water/electricity and the cute touch of individual garbage bins. The surrounding park is lovely with miles of hiking, a pretty lake and an old rock bridge. While we were in town a band of bluegrass players were camping in loop 3 so we had free music every night (how awesome is that!). Plus, Crossville had an Apple Festival and a Classic Car Rally. Our campground hosts (Skip and Opal) were the most inviting people we’d ever met and definitely made the experience all that much better. We’d come back in a heartbeat! 

 Extra Info:  Both AT&T phones and Verizon wireless worked. All sites first-come-first-serve. Selection of full hook-up, electricity/water and primitive. Sites are $20/night for 30AMP electric/water. Central dump and potable water. 

Typical site view. See the little bin in the front?

View of sitting area

View down loop #5 (where we stayed)

View down loop #3

Lovely Byrd Lake

The old stone bridge & dam

Shrooming It in TN – A Story of Hidden Beauty

“There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.”
John Constable

"False" chanterelles...pretty but not for eating

Shrooms can bring to mind a wide variety of thoughts from exclusive tastings of  musky and odorous tuber melanosporum (French truffle) to psychedelic experiences of the fungal kind . As a politician might say, while I may or may not have participated in the latter activities in my youth, this story is more about finding the hidden beauty in small things. 

As a photographer I always love the changing form of light and how it can alter a landscape.  On bright days I seek the big views, on heavy evenings the sunset and on misty mornings I look to the small things. It often amazes me how the mere dimming of light can bring an almost luminous glow to everything underfoot. And so it was, one thick morning with the moisture of dawn baking off from a TN stream I suddenly found myself surrounded by mushrooms. The perfect combo of a week of rain followed by sun had coaxed these elusive fungi from the earth and created a bloom of beauty right at our footsteps. 

Just the right light for a luminous glow

It’s enough to make your average mushroom hunter wild with excitement, and quite an event it is. Mushrooms are actually the fruit of hidden fungal organisms and it takes just the right conditions to get them blooming. Amateur mycologists avidly seek the most elusive and tasty varieties keeping their locations a closely guarded secret. It’s a historic and noble pursuit, needing an experienced eye to distinguish the poisonous ones from the others. As a child I used to hunt in the Danish forest for shrooms and always had a good nose for the sport. I’m no longer an expert, but I still enjoy the wild and fanciful curves and colors of the many types. As they say, it’s very groovy, baby and I don’t need no psychotropics to see the beauty in that view. 

Possibly a tasty treat...possibly not

Layers and light

Blooms on decaying bark