Tennessee - Day 19 - to Reelfoot Lake

Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tiptonville
Tuesday, 19 November 2019

today's route

As you can see, I went about as far west as I could go - almost to the Mississippi River.

The drive
I crossed the Tennessee River again.  It really winds around and where I crossed it today it was turning to go north into Kentucky, into the area that's called Land Between the Lakes (all that blue you can see on the map).  As close as it is to the Mississippi, it seems odd that it dumps into the Ohio River instead, but that's where it's going.

I spent about a third of today's drive on Route 70 and saw several signs telling me it too is part of the First State Road.  That's the one I was on up in the Bristol area that runs down to Memphis.  Seems odd that they routed it through Nashville, because that wasn't the capital when the road was built.  From here it must plunge southwest, because Memphis isn't all that far away.

I passed a sign saying Benton County (where I was) is the Pearl Capital of the USA.  Oddly, the only information I could find online about it comes from Aljazeera.  But it's interesting.   http://america.aljazeera.com/tennessees-pearl-industry

Driving from Camden to Paris I passed a sign saying I was on the Trail of Tears Historic Route.

Paris claims to be the home of the world's biggest fish fry.  They say it all started with mules.  You can read for yourself if you want.   https://www.explorekentuckylake.com/fish-fry

All day I passed fields with more donkeys, horses, cows, goats.  Also lots of farmland with what looked like tobacco, soybeans, maybe cotton or corn.  No crops were still in the fields I passed, though, so I was trying to tell from the stalks.

I passed one field that was green and looked recently planted - maybe winter wheat?

Because I didn't have wifi in last night's campground, I had to follow my trusty AAA map.  Fortunately, even though I had to switch now and then from one small highway to another - and one small town to another - I was able to get where I wanted to go.

I'd expected the land to get flatter as I went farther west, figuring the Mississippi River would have flattened the land long ago.  Maybe so but not where I was driving today.  Moderately high hills the whole way.  No real amount of flat land at all.

I passed a farm that said it was raising chickens for Tyson.

I'm sure there was no connection that not far away I saw a bird I thought was a Kestrel.

female Kestrel

male Kestrel

You'd think this bird was so distinct-looking I should know if that's what I saw, but that's a male.  I think it's likely I saw a female so had to rely more on body appearance than on that coloring.  And it was flying at the time, of course.







Reelfoot Lake
This lake is the main reason I came up here, though I was also hoping to meet up again with the Mississippi on its way down to Memphis.

I'd heard this lake was formed by earthquakes and that it's a prime wintering ground for Bald Eagles so decided to check it out.

My first impression was that it's a beautiful lake.  My driving route took me around some of its eastern shore and the campground was smack on the southern end of the lake so I had plenty of time to look at it.

The campground office has a lot of visitor information about the lake.  It includes an account from someone who lived here when the earthquakes happened that created the lake, and the local settlers are one of the reasons we know so exactly where the lake came from.

Beginning December 16, 1811, and intermittently until February 4, 1812, there was a series of quakes along the New Madrid fault line.  Some were severe enough to cause the Mississippi River to flow backward.  The quakes rewrote local land levels, elevating and emptying some lakes, creating others.

Reelfoot Lake, as it's now called, is TN's only large natural lake - dams accounting for the others (though TN doesn't seem to have nearly as many lakes as other states).  But it's only 18' deep at the most, and its average depth is about 5'.  This is not where you'd go if you wanted to drown yourself.

Despite its shallowness, it's recognized as a National Natural Landmark - one of the US's best remaining examples of major biotic communities and geologic features (per the campground's handouts).

It's also known for its Bald Eagles.  In Jan. and Feb. the park offers eagle tours to see one of the largest wintering populations outside of Alaska.  But they aren't just here in the winter.  The office told me they have several nesting pairs each summer, and my bird book shows them all along the Mississippi River valley year-round.

The park's handout also says they have 14 species of rare or endangered birds, 12 species of rare plants, and another 8 species of rare animals of various types.

Dexter himself found one, though I'm sure it's not rare.

can you see the snake?

Dexter found it

He stuck his nose down to check it out, then jumped back when it slithered away.  Not having any idea whether it was dangerous, I kept him from checking it a second time, but stopped to take photos myself.


One of the dominant features of this park is the cypress all over the campground.  Cypress are deciduous conifers, unusually, and the trees around here were turning brown and dropping needles all over.  These cypress are slow-growing, per the handout, and live 500-600 years.

I always assumed cypress need swampy areas, but the park says they can grow in a variety of soils as far north as Boston.  I remember a lot of cypress in a Delaware campground I enjoyed - Delaware's not as far north as Boston but it's a lot farther north than TN is.

Once while I was walking the dogs I came across a couple of camp maintenance guys and asked them about all the standing water I saw around the campground.  They said they'd had an unprecedented amount of rain this year and even averaged an inch per day during February.  Apparently they were getting all the rain that the rest of drought-stricken TN wasn't getting.  They said the lake rose and covered the whole campground with water up to the torso.  It took them months to pump it all out.

Then in May there was a huge storm with straightline winds that took down a bunch of trees.  Two of them fell on the park superintendent's house.  The whole top of one tree lifted off and set down right next to one of the campers.  (That camper left the same day.)  Other campers were flooded in place because with all the rain and wind, the lakewater flooded the campground again.  The guys said it took weeks with a backhoe and dump trucks to clear debris out and reopen the campground for summer tourists.

They said the standing water I saw was from recent heavy rains.  From farther east where I'd been there was a lot of light rain but nothing heavy.  Apparently this spot was the dumping ground for rain this year.

I really liked this place.  There were only about a dozen of us here, and only 1 other dog, so I was very comfortable.  And the lake was lovely.