Summer Waterfall Tour

Stillhouse Hollow Falls

This summer has been dreadfully hot, and as a result I've been hanging around a lot of natural water features each weekend.  Besides my normal summer weekend routine of kayaking, I've also (as you can guess from the title) been seeking out swimming holes at the base of waterfalls.  In fact, my friend Sarah and I have dubbed it, "The Great Middle Tennessee Waterfall Tour of Summer 2010." 

Since Sarah is out of town this weekend, Brian and I decided to take the dogs and venture out to Stillhouse Hollow Falls located 20 minutes southwest of Columbia in Maury County.  Its a state natural area and features a small waterfall and a larger waterfall (Stillhouse Hollow Falls) with a 75-foot drop.  The trail is  only about 2/3rds of a mile, but features a pretty deep descent into the hollow.  When we reached the base of the falls, there were a couple of families swimming in the shallow pool below, but we noticed an area where we could climb to a ledge under the falls and let the cool water rain down on the tops of our heads.  We let the dogs off leash and watched them revert to puppies, splashing around and running back and forth between the different families.

Since we got a late start, we didn't stay long since I wanted to visit the gravesite of my paternal great-grandparents. They're buried next to an old church and spring at Cave Springs cemetery (est. 1853) along Liepers Creek Rd. in Maury County.   We encountered quite a few detours on our way due to the extensive damage caused by the May flood, but with the aid of modern technology (Brian's iphone), we finally found our way to the cemetery.  As I was taking photos of Emry Davis and Mamie Davis' gravestones, an elderly man with striking blue eyes and one arm stopped by and informed me it was Decoration Day.  We also determined we were distantly related and shared the same last name, but as quickly as he appeared, he got back in his truck and drove off down the gravel road.