Northrup Falls located at Colditz Cove State Natural Area

Northrup Falls located at
Colditz Cove State Natural Area
Located  outside of Jamestown, TN

Saturday, February 1, 2014
FREE Park to hike in..

Tony and I was in the area hiking at Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park and decided to check out a few other locations in the area. So after a great lunch in Jamestown, TN we decided to check out Northrup Falls located at Colditz Cove State Natural Area.

We located the site really easily. We parked in the lot right off to right. The place comes up on you really quickly. It is a graveled parking area. We locked the van and off we went.
The path was well marked at first with white markers, but later on that changed quickly.

The woods are dense here and full of pines and moss. So, even though its the winter, there is a lot of Greenery on this hike. We quickly came to cliff..no signs and no warning..so if traveling with children "BE CAREFUL"
The drop off to water and waterfalls below is extremely steep and there is no support safety railing...NOTHING!!!

But from here you can hear the waterfall.
So we started down the path and ran into another couple coming out. They said they had to turn around due to all the icy pathways and rocks. They wished us safe journey and off we went..We were going to go as far as we could..

Tony and I came to a beautiful spot where you could see the creek go off the rock cliff to form the top of the waterfall.  We came to a foot bridge and the view from here to the waters edge to go over the top of the fall is BEAUTIFUL....

The pathway on this side is even more green with pine and moss. 

We walked about 1000 feet and out to start the descent down the hillside. Here is where all the large ice formations started forming on the rocks causing some beautiful photo opportunities. 

We had to do some major brush dodging and rock climbing to make our way around the base of the cliffs and ridge line.
We came to several areas where we thought, WHAT NOW? Do we turn back...? No, we kept on climbing and working our way around the ridge at the base of the cliff..We can do this!!!

We finally found an opening after climbing some rocks that allowed us to see the "FROZEN SNOW VOLCANO" formation at the base of the waterfall...Amazing!!! I have never seen anything like this before.!!!

We made our away around the mound of snow, even crawling in some places under the rock overhang to get past and when we got to the other side we were met with a wall incline of icy covered rocks that we had to scale or turn back..TURN BACK??? No, we got this!!!

 

So, we began our scary but exciting journey to the top.  I went ahead so that way if I fell back down hopefully he could catch me before I did a polar plunge into the water/creek below..

The climb was about 100 ft up or more an incline covered by thick icy film over the sand and rock base..it was very scary, but I didn't want to go back. We have to be near the end?

After we got to the top of the Icy covered Rock wall, we were faced with more large rocks, ice and breaking large icicles off the rock wall of the cliff. 

So, I put my camera away. 
We had to do a lot of rock hugging, crawling and brush wacking to make our way out. 
It was starting to get dark, but we finally made it out. 

The entire loop is about 2.5 miles with tons of climbing. I would not consider this an easy trail even in the summer time. But, one thing for 
sure, it was an adventure. We were both covered in mud when we made it back to the van. I kissed my van three times before climbing in.

I am proud of us. We didn't turn around! We never gave up! No matter how difficult and it was, we MADE IT !!! I am very PROUD OF US!!!

Additional links:
#48 on the Top Secret Tennessee Trailway
http://www.waterfall-picture-guide.com/northrup-falls.html
http://gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/maps/cumberland.shtml
Colditz Cove State Nature Area