Hiwassee Ocoee State Park, Tenneessee

May 4, 2025

After a fun few weeks visiting with family, it was just the two of us once again in our sub-220 square feet of rolling palatial opulence. We spent the week in the middle of nowhere in southeastern Tennessee at the quiet and very small Hiwassee Ocoee Scenic River State Park.

The pretty rolling hills of northern Georgia

Lots of small apple stands up here

Scenic cow pasture

After all the fun urban busyness of the last few weeks, it was good to settle in for a bit of quiet recharging. And quiet is what we got at this campground. When we arrived on Monday afternoon, there was only one other small teardrop trailer at the opposite end of the campground. It stayed that way until the end of the week when a smattering of hard-core weekend tent campers arrived amidst the rain and thunderstorms.

A quiet campground that we had almost entirely to ourselves most of our stay

There really wasn't a lot to do in the state park if one didn't have a canoe or kayak, but we did enjoy a daily walk of the loops and nature trail, sitting on the deck listening to the birds, and getting out for a local hike one day.

Gee Creek Falls Trail, a nearby hike

The creek suddenly disappeared into a concrete tunnel.

The concrete water diverter in Gee Creek was used to wash mined silica, which provided flux for furnaces processing copper. The mining occurred around the 1890s when the railroad provided a new option to access the Copper Basin in addition to the Copper Road (now US Highway 64).

This is a view standing on the end of the diverter where the creek disappeared underground

The trail continued for a short distance on the opposite side of the creek. Rick tried to scout out a "Julie friendly" way to cross without getting wet feet, but didn't find one that Julie approved of.

This guy was sunbathing on a rock that Rick was climbing. Both Rick and the snake were quite startled. Turns out, it was just a harmless common water snake.

We encountered quite a bit of rain and gentle thunderstorms during the week which made for some cozy candle-lit reading time in the camper. "Candle-lit" because there were no electric hookups at this campground (and no generators allowed--yay!), and our site was quite shady (even on the few sunny days), so we had to watch our electric usage pretty closely. Of course, we still ran the dishwasher and did some streaming. One can't be too deprived of modern conveniences 😉.

Overall, it was a chill spot to hang out for a week.

We found this poem(?) on a sign along one of the nature trails. We get the impression it is supposed to be inspirational, but it just seems kind of sad somehow.

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