Audubon Acres & the Trail of Tears

We decided to make the most of our annual CMW trip to Tennessee this summer by trying to visit as many national parks as we could squeeze into the time available. We had the added pleasure of enjoying the company of our nephew Nathan and a friend of the family, Leah.

The six of us headed out on Monday morning with quite a list of activities, but naturally I forgot the camera. Our first stop was Audubon Acres. While it is a lovely nature preserve, it is also on the Trail of Tears. We stamped our National Park Passports and learned much about the history of the site from the folks in the visitor center, and then at their advice we hiked out to the swinging bridge.

It was a very hot and muggy day, but the hike was fun. It twisted through thick vegetation, rich with the sounds of birds and wildlife we could not actually see. We hiked until we got to the swinging bridge, where we enjoyed a short break over the coolness of the river.

On our way to our next stop we swung into the parking lot at Eastgate Mall. Tucked in a corner of the lot is a small cemetery which is part of the Trail of Tears NPS.

We then wound our way up Lookout Mountain to Point Park. Point Park is part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, so we got our passport stamped and then hiked out to the point. We had brought William up here when he was just a little guy, so it was fun to go back.

We ended the day by visiting Chickamauga Battlefield. We had just enough time to pick up the Junior Ranger booklet before the visitor center closed for the evening. The park itself was still open for a while, so we did the driving tour portion of booklet before we headed home.

This is a picture of William at Point Park many years ago. He was trying to learn how to whistle using an acorn shell.