I’m glad we stopped

Change of plans. Our original plan had been to stay a week near the diamond mine but there were no spots to be had. We ended up lucking into the only spot available for 2 nights, in the state park not the campground we wanted to stay at, for some reason all the campgrounds are booked solid for a couple weeks out.

The state campground had the 1 spot available for 2 nights so we took it. Hot Springs is not that far away so we arrived in plenty of time to spend a few hours searching after we arrived.

We had a light rain in the night but all that did was make things muddy, and that mud really stuck like glue. Every few minutes we would need to scrape off the worst of the mud so you could lift your  feet.

As you leave the diamond field they have water hoses set up so you can wash off the mud off yourself and you’re equipment it took a while but we managed to get our boots mostly free of mud.

10/26 & 27/2018 Elevation 936

With the Murfreesboro parks full we decided our next stop  should be Chickasaw National Recreation Area so Mary could get her new Passport Book stamped.

It’s a pretty area, with a small creek, Travertine Creek, that has a few waterfalls, but a few of the “falls” are just small damms. A few springs and some hiking  trails and an enclosure with some buffalo but we never caught a glimpse of him/them.

10/27/2818

We drove around and did some short hikes today, probably a little over 3 miles total. There are several  good sized springs in the area, 2 springs, Buffalo and Antelope springs combined output about 5 million gallons a day. These are freshwater spring, there are also some super smelly mineral springs in the area. According to one of the signs, one of the springs had a little arsenic in the water and people would use it to lighten their skin.

Around one small Lake they have a concrete path, 2.9 miles, all the way around it. We only walked about a 1/2 mile of it before turning around. They do have an interesting setup below the dam for flood control. The lake is constant level and not for flood control, they have a series of small retaining dams to hold back some of the flood water  runoff.

All of the paths we walked on were wide smooth and either gravel or concrete and the area appears to be heavily used during the summer months.

https://www.nps.gov/chic/index.htm