I left my house Saturday morning and headed to
Lookout Mountain expecting that when I got to the Covenant College parking lot,
that what I would experience would be a humid foggy hike ahead. Instead, what I found was a fairly humid but
not foggy hike waiting to be enjoyed. 10 hikers began our decent from Covenant
College down to The Bluff Trail on which we would spend most of our hike as we
made our way to Craven's House. The trail from Covenant College to The Bluff
Trail, however, does not show up on any trail map. It is difficult to find, so
prehiking this hike paid off when finding our way down to the Bluff Trail. As I
said, it was fairly humid but the temperature was perhaps in the 70's and we were also hiking on the west side
of Lookout Mountain, which meant there was not an issue of hiking with the sun breaking through
the canopy and heating us up. We made our way along the trail to Sunset Rock. 7
hikers made their way up to the top of Sunset Rock and 3 remained on the trail.
This is a good call if you decide not to make the trip up to the top of Sunset
Rock from the trail below. It is a steep and precarious climb and if you wish
to experience the view without the climb, the top of Sunset Rock can be
accessed from the road and parking lot above. After a short stay on the top, we
descended to the trail and continued on to the Craven's House Trail. On this
section of the Bluff Trail we uncounted rock climbers plying their crazy sport
– you got to admire their craziness. We decided not to make the side trip up to
Point Park in order to be off the trail before the afternoon temperatures
climbed to the expected high 80's to low 90's. Those who wanted to visit the
park could visit it at their leisure on the way back down the mountain when we
finished the hike. By the way, I believe you can visit the park for free with a
Senior Golden Pass and take some guests with you. But do check that out to be
sure before your visit. We loaded the hikers in the 3 vehicles staged at Craven’s
House and returned to Covenant College and ended our hike shortly after noon.
It was a 6+ mile easy hike (except for the climb up to the top of Sunset Rock).
If you would like to see another picture, click here.
Not all math puns are bad, just sum of them.