About Knoxville's Freeway Subdivision

Most every fall we take one of the annual color cruises on nearby Norris Lake. Operated and narrated by a ranger from Norris Dam State Park, these cruises take you places you can only access by boat.

Friends of Norris Dam State Park donated this pontoon boat for park use.

This past Friday wasn't the best weather conditions for a trip on the lake. It was rainy, cold, and blustery; in other words a fairly typical fall day in east Tennessee. However the leaves were almost ready for viewing so off we went.

The showy maple trees were a vibrant red and easily the star of the show. There is a lot of shoreline showing because the Tennessee Valley Authority drops most all the local lake levels in the fall to make room for runoff in the spring and for flood control downstream.

The fallen trees along the shoreline are allowed to remain in place because they provide great fish habitat when the water levels are raised in the spring.

Even thought the water level is down about 20 feet from summer levels Norris Lake is still very deep with an average winter/fall depth of around 75 feet.

Norris Dam State Park is a very popular attraction with over 800 miles of shoreline and clear, pristine waters.

On other color cruises we have seen lots of wildlife of all sorts but I guess given the weather, they were all staying near shelter. We only saw two Mallard ducks flying over and a Belted Kingfisher sitting on the bank.

Even though it was a cold fall day we still had a great time and saw some beautiful scenery.

Now is a great time to be looking for a home in the greater Knoxville area so you can enjoy places like Norris Dam State Park and Knoxvilles many other family friendly attractions.

Knoxville Home Center is a great place to look for that new home.

OK, spring fever has finally caught up with me.

For a cure, me and 2 other hiking buds took the day off this past Friday and did a nice 7.5 mile loop trail over in the Cataloochee Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Cataloochee Valley is a fairly remote part of the park and is tougher to access than most of the rest so it's never crowded. We saw a total of 5 other people all day on the trail. When is the last time you only saw 5 people in 1 day???

Here's a link to my photoblog.

Scenic overlook entering the Cataloochee Valley

Lots of delicate, Painted Trillium was in bloom along a lot of the trail. This a very abundant, springtime flower in the Smokies.