Cumberland Mountain State Park

This Tennessee state park is located really close to Crossville, on TN #127, and not too awful far from I-40.
I took the Pioneer Loop trail for about 4 miles+, completing the somewhat abbreviated loop. One of the bridges which crossed the main stream feeding Byrd Lake was out so modifications in the route were made. Though these changes still allowed for a complete appreciation of the biological diversity found in this 1720 acre park, with every native plant found on the entire Cumberland Plateau is found within this park.
This park provides hiking trails; the longest is 6 miles, fishing, boat rentals, and ranger led educational hikes. As a matter of fact I walked up on one of these interpretive hikes and it turned out I knew the Ranger, Randy Hedgepath, who also serves as an advisor to one of the organizations I am affiliated with in a similar way. Ranger Hedgepath was leading some folks who were w/ the Sierra Club and they commented on the "Stop Mountaintop Removal" button I was wearing. It was a nice way to make acquaintances and know that there are others speaking out on this crime against humanity.
Along the trail I viewed numerous rock shelters as seen in this photo. Note the color changes along the rock as a result of lighting being filtered through clouds and trees and then reflecting off the rocks. The other photo is off a pool of apparent quicksand, yea, that's it, deep quicksand! Oh, OK then it's a pool of water covered with ants joined at their legs to buoy themselves atop the water, yea maybe that's it, yea floating ants....Nope? OK, really it is a pool of water covered with pine or spruce needles. Peace