Fiery Gizzard is actually the name of a trail I went hiking on recently - sometimes I don't have to work very hard for eye catching blog titles.
This weekend I drove up to central Tennessee to get my hiking fix. Specifically the destination was Grundy Forest, a 212 acre tract, adjacent to Monteagle, TN. The Forest is actually part of the much larger (16000 acre) South Cumberland State Park. The Forest features some amazing geologic formations common to the Cumberland Plateau region including an extensive gorge and numerous waterfalls with inviting pools.
The Fiery Gizzard is a 17-mile one-way trail, and one of its termini is at Grundy Forest. We didn't hike the entirety of the trail, but that would be a fun and easy weekend endeavor - there are 4 primitive camp sites along the trail.
We hiked the FG along the riverbed through an extensive Hemlock forest that reminded me a lot more of the Northwest than the South. There were numerous rocky landslides that we had to traverse, so any hikers will need to watch their footing. The trail then did some impressive twists up the ridge line before leveling out. We took a slight detour (~.4 mi) to have lunch at Raven's Point, a very scenic promontory. After lunch we diverged from the FG and took the Dog Line trail to head back towards our cars. The piece of the Gizzard plus the Dog Line added up to a respectable ~10 mile day hike.
Since I wasn't rock hopping or splashing through the river this time I brought along a better camera. The pictures just hint at beauty of the region.
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