Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2015 - 29

More in Maryland!

Cumberland Falls in Kentucky is known as the "Niagara of the South" and is the centerpiece of a state park.

telephone that he still has a home
in Spartanburg - and can still hang
his hat under that "Blue Ridge
Mountain Sky."
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Chapman Cultural Center:
864-542-2787
Cribb's Kitchen: 864-699-9669
Croft State Park: 864-585-1283
Farmer's Table: 864-582-6554
Hollywild Animal Park:
864-472-2038
Spartanburg Tourism: 864-5945050, visitspartanburg.com
Wade's Restaurant: 864-5823800, eatatwades.com

KENTUCKY
It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm riding a slow train through Kentucky.
Leaving Stearns, it takes seven miles
for the Big South Fork Scenic
Railway to reach Blue Heron - what
was once a coal camp in the 1940s
and '50s but what is now an interpretive site in the Big South Fork
National River & Recreation Area.
This ride appears much longer
than seven miles. But, really, that's

a good thing.
"This is a historical-type ride,"
says the conductor, Sam Mullis,
72. "It's beautiful scenery, and it
goes back in time."
This excursion train whisks
through a stony-walled tunnel. It
passes coal camps. It also nearly
touches rock cuts that seem ready
to reach inside the open cars.
Loudly, the whistle echoes, and the
train wheels squeal. Passengers,
also, clamor to the left side of each
car to feel the breeze rising from a
rocky creek.
With a 90-minute layover at Blue
Heron, I walk trails and enjoy my
"Miner's Lunch" - a sandwich and
cole slaw. Later, our return to Stearns
comes at a much-faster pace as the
train pushes back uphill.
Heading east that same afternoon,
I follow a scenic highway, Ky. 90, for
about a half-hour to Cumberland
Falls State Resort Park. My room for
this night in Kentucky is a suite in the
DuPont Lodge, and my meals, while
here, are the park restaurant's mouthwatering all-you-can-eat dinner and
breakfast buffets.

Online Exclusive: Take Joe's Journey
to the mountains of Maryland for a
weekend trip to Frederick.
BlueRidgeCountry.com/Summer

I spend most of the evening
observing the various overlooks of
the 68-foot-high Cumberland Falls,
a gushing beauty known as the
"Niagara of the South." Then, in the
dark, I return to see the "moonbow,"
an arch that appears in a white light
on a full moon night at the waterfall's base.
Over 100 others also came to
watch the waterfall. Still, it was the
wee hours before I saw anything
unusual: what appeared to be a mysterious flashlight shining across the
base of the Cumberland Falls.
"Yeah," says viewing-veteran Eric
Mills of nearby Knox County,
Kentucky. "That's the moonbow."
Stearns, Kentucky
Big South Fork Scenic Railway:
606-376-5330, bsfsry.com
Cumberland Falls State Resort
Park: 606-528-4121 
July/August 2015 29

http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com/Summer http://www.visitspartanburg.com http://www.eatatwades.com http://www.bsfsry.com

Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2015

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