Land Between the Lakes

We spent an enjoyable day today driving the Wilderness Trace from north to south, exploring the Land Between the Lakes. The lakes in question are Kentucky Lake (formed by damming the Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley, formed by damming the Cumberland River. The area between these two man-made lakes is now a national recreation area administered by the Forest Service.

First we drove along a scenic byway, Kentucky Lake Drive, which offers vistas of the lake and dam. It's a very narrow one-way loop, with only a couple of places long enough for us to pull off with our fifth wheel. We also had to navigate around some deep potholes, but the drive was quite pleasant.

At the North Visitor Station we got a map of the area and some advice on hiking opportunities from a friendly staff member. We hiked along the Canal Loop Trail, which took us to the shore of Lake Barkley. The trail is a single track mountain bike trail but also open to hikers. During the week there aren't too many bikes, so we had a pleasant hike.

We drove to the Nature Watch Area by Lake Hematite, hoping to picnic, but we weren't able to park near any picnic areas, so we ended up eating lunch in our trailer and then taking a short walk along the Honker Trail, cut short by high water across the trail.

At the Golden Pond Visitor Center and Planetarium, we enjoyed the exhibits on the history of the area from the time of the Paleo Indians (10,000 to 7,000 B.C.) to the present. Then we watched a planetarium show entitled "Earth, Moon, and Sun." It included a star show and one song from their longer laser light show--something for everyone. The video was aimed at kids (and I managed to snooze through a good bit of it). The laser light show part was actually quite eye catching.

In the lobby we found several quilts. Terri suggested that we go to the Quilters Museum in Paducah--but this is as close as we got.

As we drove south on the Trace, we crossed from Kentucky into Tennessee. We ended the day in Clarksville, TN, in a friendly Walmart parking lot.

We have a neighbor!

It's been quite hot the last few days, but a "cold front" has come through, so it's very pleasant outside this evening, which is good, since we don't have air conditioning (no shore power). Tomorrow we're on to the Nashville area. We called ahead to make reservations, but our calls were dropped a couple of times, and then there was no cell service on the Trace, so we had to wait until we got to Dover, TN, at the south end of the Trace, so make our call.