I'm blessed to live in what is surely one of the most beautiful spots in the world, East Tennessee.  The Smokey Mountain National Park is justifiably famous and it's still the most visited national park in the U.S.A.  However, it's always crowded and the Smokey Mountains are certainly not any more beautiful than the Cumberland Mountains, where I live.  

I love to go to the Cumberland Plateau with my husband.  We can spend the day hiking among the boulders and along the creeks on the plateau.  We take a picnic and eat at the summit.  On the way up and down, we see very few people on the trails.  The few folks we do run into are usually from around here too.  We don't get many tourists in these parpts.  I suppose we're too out of the way.  And frankly, that's how I like it.  

Here's a little poem I wrote as I walked up the trail a few weeks ago, behind my husband, on the way up to the top.  It was a beautiful day, sunny but cool, as it frequently is on the plateau.  All in all, it could not have been a more perfect day.  

On the Cumberland Plateau

 

I crawl among the crannies

On the plateau's stoney top

Climb weathered folds and creases

Of lichen covered rocks

 

 

And there I find my fairyland 

 A wondrous world apart

Where boulders thrum in chorus

With the drum beat of my heart

 

My joyful, pulsing heart