Green Gorge Park

Derek and I have exhausted all of the walkable areas in our neighborhood. Last weekend we decided to drive somewhere random, to be able to walk in a new, different neighborhood. We found something even better, a small trail.

We drove up to Signal Mountain and parked in a CVS parking lot. We walked two blocks to Green Gorge Park, a skinny, but long trail. Even though there are houses and main roads on all sides, the trail is heavily wooded, so it makes you feel like you are miles from civilization.

The park is a long loop, almost 2 miles long, and passes next to Shoal Creek. There are two bridges crossing the creek on either sides (one of them is a swinging bridge, and there is a bridge in the middle. We took the middle bridge, so we only did one half of the trail.

It was relaxing to walk along side the creek, which formed small rapids and waterfalls. There was a lot of greenery and wildflowers. We even came upon a friendly cat!

One of my goals for living in Chattanooga is to hike as much as possible, so I am glad we found this small trail that we previously were not aware of.

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Shakleford Ridge Park

Shakleford Ridge Park is a park located in Signal Mountain. We hiked here last weekend. This was actually our second attempt to go here. Our first time wasn’t meant to be because there was a running race happening at the time, so the trails were closed down.

I am glad that we waited to go though, because there was a lot of color in the woods. We walked through a lot of beautiful scenes. Fall foliage always puts me in a good mood, after not experiencing it in Houston for three years.

It’s a woodsy park, with a couple of different trails. The main trail is the blue loop, which is a 2.7 mile round trip. It’s not too difficult of a trail, but there are some steep uphill parts.

There are some streams that run through the park, so there are quite a few bridge crossings.

We admittedly did not finish the whole 2.7 miles, but we did get close; we did over 2 miles. We came across the edge of the parking lot and we were both tired and hungry at that point, so we just cut across to our car. If we do this again I might consider packing a lunch and resting half way.

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The first bridge at the start of the blue loop was a swinging bridge.
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The only covered bridge on the trail.
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More bridges!
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This is my favorite picture I took during the hike. A path to a photographer’s paradise!
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The Prayer of the Woods – a sign with a nice poem that someone left behind.