Thursday morning November 8th, 2018 Amanda and I left our home in Northern Kentucky to visit Cumberland Falls. The drive was about 170 miles and took about 3 hours to get to our destination.  Upon our arrival we noticed that the water level was higher than normal and  we did get some great drone footage of the falls. 

I would like to add that we planned on leaving Wednesday after I got off work, so I could photograph the falls in the much more desired early morning light. Unfortunately I had to work 4 hours of overtime that day and I just wasn't up for the drive that night.

After wrapping things up at Cumberland Falls we decided to make the trip to Yahoo Falls. Yahoo Falls is only about 20 miles or about a 40 minute drive from Cumberland Falls. Once you get to the trailhead at Yahoo Falls you will have about a 1/4 mile hike to get to the falls. Please watch your step while walking the trail. Amanda found a Red Salamander that was sharing the trail with us and if she wasn't paying attention we could have easily stepped on it. To get to Yahoo Falls you will have to walk down a steep set of metal steps and on the way back you will have to walk back up them.

Now we did all of this in one day but I would have much preferred to have spent a whole day at each place. With that being said I think this would make a great weekend waterfall trip in Kentucky for most people.

Once we wrapped things up at Yahoo Falls we began our 120 mile, 2 hours and 20 minute drive to Townsend, Tennessee where we slept in the back of the truck to get some much needed rest.

Days two, three, and four we spent mostly driving through The Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove. We got to see a herd of about 30 elk, a black bear foraging for food in a field, white-tailed bucks fighting during the rut, lots of wild turkey, and a black bear in a tree.

We spent the first two nights sleeping in the back of the truck. Thankfully on third night we were able to find a hotel room to get some much needed sleep and a shower.

Our two favorite restaurants on this trip were:

Cumberland Falls State Resort Park Lodge

We got the buffet and the cost was about nine dollars a person. The food was great and the staff was very friendly. We also got to sit at a window seat overlooking the river which also had birdfeeders set up with lots of woodland birds coming right to the window making for excellent entertainment.

Trail Head Steak And Trout House located in Townsend, Tennessee

For about 97 dollars we both had a fillet mignon meal. This was our biggest splurge of the trip but the food and service were excellent.

The total cost of this trip was about $600 for gas, hotel, and food. Please keep in mind that we did save about $360 by sleeping in the back of the truck for two nights.

I hope you have found this information helpful and you start planning your next adventure soon.