Audubon Acres - Chattanooga, TN - July
16
"Pardon me, boy, is that the
Chattanooga Choo Choo?"
Today we started with some hiking in the
Trail of Tears Audubon Acres Wildlife Sanctuary. It gets the Trail of Tears designation
as it was home to the Cherokee before they were displaced. The South
Chickamauga Creek runs through the Sanctuary. Many of the trees are labeled as part
of the Cherokee Arboretum.
The southeastern corner of the
property is home to the Little Owl Village, which is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places. Though the site has long borne the name of the
brother of Chief Dragging Canoe, whether this site was one of the Chickamauga
Towns founded by the Chickamauga Cherokee in 1776/1777 is uncertain. Much
stronger evidence exists that this corner of present-day Audubon Acres was the
site of a Napochie village in the 1560's that was encountered by the Tristan
DeLuna expedition during their travels north from Florida.
We got checked in at the Visitor’s
Center and with map in hand off we went. There are about 5 miles of trails here
and the terrain was pretty easy. We came to the Swinging Bridge and crossed
over it to get to some of the other hiking trails. We were hearing a lot of
birds. Mostly seeing Chickadees, Titmice, Robins and a few Woodpeckers. We
heard some Cuckoos, but never found them. We also saw a Vireo, but we didn’t
get a good enough look to identify it.
Visitor's Center
the path leading to the trails
immature Bluebird
the Swinging Bridge
this tree is still growing well despite it's roots have it almost laying down over the creek
Turtle on the tree
the trails were easy
look closely, there is a great moth on the tree trunk
We checked out the Spring Frog Cabin
and surrounding buildings. This restored cabin was originally located near the
railroad tracks and is thought to have been built in the mid-1700’s with Native
construction techniques. The cabin is named for Spring Frog, a Cherokee
naturalist and was later occupied by the Walker family. Robert Sparks Walker,
the noted naturalist, author and poet, as well as the founder of the Sanctuary,
was born in the cabin and is buried in the side yard. The cabin had been
modified from its original construction by the native and white settlers who
farmed the property over the years.
Robert Sparks Walker
immature Bluebird
quite a few trains came through while we were hiking
We hiked for about 3 hours before
heading to lunch. Lunch just happened to be across the border in Georgia.
We grabbed some pizza and went to an area that was supposed
to have some Wetland Trails. We found the area, but no trails existed. We did
walk down to the pond, but there were no birds. There were quite a few Dragonflies
and some Canada Geese. (yes, I know Geese are birds…ha ha).
We walked along the road and crossed
over the closed bridge and saw a couple Passion Vine Flowers.
Woodland Park Baptist Church - the wetlands were next to this huge church
immature House Finches
We passed a huge amazon center right next to a huge Volkswagen plant
vines covering the landscape
We called it a day and grabbed some
ice cream at Bruster’s before heading back to the hotel. The extra time let me
get caught up on some emails that I have not had time to return with our
touring schedule.
It was a rain free day today!
Tomorrow, we are going in search of
Black Bears again.
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