Fiery Gizzard and Foster Falls

Fiery Gizzard Trail
For reference, the first 1.2 miles (2.4 mile roundtrip) is what we hiked for the family reunion in 2006. Total DogHole/Fiery Gizzard loop is 9.7 miles.

At 1.5 mile mile, we leave the official Fiery Gizzard trail to take the Doghole Trailloop, which climbs up the bluff and thenfollows this for about 2 miles, were it reconnects to the Fiery Gizzard trail at the Ravenpoint junction near the backpacking campsite.

Doghole Mine-a saltpeter mine so named because only a dog could walk upright into it.


2.7 mile Yellow Pine Cascade-good spring for reloading water before reaching camp (we were trying to minimize hauling water weight.

3.4 mile Werner Point-one of the nice look out point overlooking Fiery Gizzard Gorge.


4.3 mile Ravenpoint campsite (home of enormous spider see other posts.)

Anderson Falls (descend wooden platform to reach base of falls and water for breakfast and morning hiking.)


Trail Notes: Raven Point junction/campsite is the midpoint on the trail and where Doghole Trail reconnects with the Fiery Gizzard trail. Continuing along Fiery Gizzard trail on the bluff 0.2 miles brings you past Anderson Falls and then if you continued on the trail (which we did not do) for another 8 miles it would bring you to Foster Falls trailhead. A halfmile spur (0.9 mile round trip) from the junction takes you out to the end of Ravenpoint. Taking the Fiery Gizzard trail that descend into Fiery Gizzard Gorge returns back to Grundy Forest trailhead where we started.



The spur out to Ravenpoint gives nearly 360 degree view of Fiery Gizzard Gulch. Saw red-tail hawk flying below us. JPD thought a zipline across the gulch would be fun. A several pitch rapple would have saved us some effort...

This tree at Raven point seemed to be growing out of solid rock.


Near the bottom of the descent into Fiery Gizzard Gorge (Maybe the 5.5 mile mark?) after cutting our way through spiderwebs.


Most of the trail in the Gorge consisted of rock-hopping. Good thing our packs were lighter thanks to eating dinner and breakfast already!


Cascade were we ate lunch. Maybe 6.5 mile mark?


Tree near cascade that seemed to be growing out of rock slab.

Street curb falls Maybe 7.1 mile mark?

Water cutting channels in the rock

JPD in the "fruit bowl." 7.8 mile mark? Now the hiking got easy again. Thank goodness, our legs were shot.

Sycamore Falls 8.5 mile mark. What we have been waiting for all day! The chance to swim in the water fall pool beneath the 12 foot falls. SD also jumped from top of falls (which according to sign at trailhead is not permitted, good thing we didn't read it before we started!) For reference this was our final point on family reunion hike.


After finishing our hike, we then drove to the Foster Falls (the other end of the Fiery Gizzard Trail. To through hike this someday we will need to have two cars. That hike is a total of 12.5 miles.) Our original plan was to backpack in the 0.5 miles to the Father Adamz campground, the last campsite at the far end of the Fiery Gizzard Trail, but we were tired and a sign said the campground was full and the next campground was 2.3 miles in along the trail.

So we just hike to the bottom of Foster Falls,

SD swam,


we watched this crazy guy free climb halfway up the falls, then we just hiked into Father Adamz for future reference (it would make a great family camping site, just need to haul the stuff a little ways,) and then we drove home.

Arachnaphobia Fiery Gizzard-style

Spiders Hunting Humans

We were so excited when we got to the Ravenpoint backpacking campsite, because it had an outhouse...


..until we tried to use it.

I was originally thinking this was a brown recluse, but now looking up pictures on the web and comparing to our pictures, it clearly isn't. This thing is large (Remember a toilet seat is probably 3 to 4 inches wide and this baby's legs spanned that easily). Anyone out there with more expertise that can identify it?


I tried to kill it, but it survived one good whack with a stick and then ran and hid. We decided that the standard backpacking call of the wild procedures would suffice for us.

Glowing Blue Lights

So I was sitting in the dark with my headlight on, when I saw a tiny blue light being reflected back at me. Curious, and thinking someone had left some trinket behind, I went over to investigate, but after lifting the leaves away, all I could see was a small spider. Then when I went back to my original position, I realized it was the spider eyes that were reflecting the light. The scary thing was how many more of these little blue lights I saw that night will walking around. Who's woods these are I think I know, their eyes make the forest glow...

Breaking Trail

Then hiking down the arduous descent (thanks goodness we were not ascending) from the Raven point to Fiery Gizzard creek for our return trip, I was breaking thru webs across the trail every couple yards. Finally I picked up long stick and start slashing X's through the air as I walked along. I must have looked quite comical. This helped somewhat, but I still managed to get a couple of spiders dangling in my face from my hat. I was so happy when we started running into groups coming the other direction on the trail, as that cut down on the number of spidey incidences.

Mushroom Hunting in Fiery Gizzard

JPD and I went mushroom hunting along the Fiery Gizzard Trail

We found an enormous variety of mushrooms that thanks to our intimate knowledge of Tennessee flora we were able to identify.

Barstool mushoom-used both to sit on while you dine, as well as dinner for four.

Golfball mushroom- used by weekend hackers to practice their tee shots.


Apple Core mushroom-taste sweet with a delicate fruity overtones, unfortunately highly toxic (believed to be the mushroom used by Snow White's wicked stepmother.)


Space Alien mushroom-very exotic taste, slight metallic, can give diner the sensation that they have been abducted.


Leopard Skin mushroom-has a taste that can only be appreciated by the fashion challenged.


Purple Heart mushroom-said to have restorative properties.


Arrow Mushroom (may be misidentified)-can be used to poison arrow tips.


Yellow Butterfly Mushroom-light and flighty taste with a hint of lemon.


Pineapple Mushroom-a definite tropical fruity taste.


Kidney Bean Mushroom-Children rarely like the taste of this fiborous fungi, but excellent when stewed in chilis and soups. Kiwi Mushroom-fruity and exotic taste with a odd texture.


Yellow Mellow mushroom-a sweet and mellow taste with a slight pop.


Papaya Mushroom-rare and hard to find in the United States, but of so delicious.


Scalloped Potato Mushrooms-always come is packs, a staple of many a large Appalachian family.

Figure 8 mushroom-Eaten by skaters before big competitions, boring, but nourishing.


Orange Hibiscus Mushroom-A tropical delicacy.


Flying Ninja Disc Mushroom-Their incredibly sharp edges allow these shrooms to be used as weapons, but also to add kick to any sushi.


Kissing Ms. Pacman Mushroom-Can be added to soups to increase passion. Should not be used in excess.


Cotton Ball Mushrooms-hundreds of uses, but not for food.