Indian Mountain State Park, Jellico, Tennessee
But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.” ~ Genesis 34:8-10 How great the enticement into the world can be! Hamor is opening the door wide for Jacob to accept inclusion into Hamor’s nation of pagan people and his kingdom – ‘intermarry with us . . . stay . . . work . . . gain wealth and prosperity . . .’ Quite the invitation! Difficult to refuse. But that’s exactly what we’re called to do. God doesn’t want us to compromise with the world, despite the veiled (or sometimes not so veiled) offers. Satan tried to tempt Jesus away. The offers were astounding. But just like Jesus, we are called to be separate from the world, and rely solely on the Father, His Will and His Way. I then sought the scripture reference that we’re to be ‘in the world, but not of the world’, and was very surprised to find that phrase isn’t actually scripture! But it is in line with the teaching of scripture – sort of a paraphrase for verses that can be found in John 15:19, 17:14-16; I John 2:15; Romans 12:2; I Corinthians 5:9-10; II Corinthians 6:14-17; Ephesians 4:22-24, and others. We live here; we work here. We are not to shelter ourselves within a ‘spiritual cocoon’, otherwise, how would others be drawn to the Father? But we are to guard our lives and doctrine closely, to not be swayed by the thoughts and attitudes of the world. We are called to be salt and light. Is your salt losing its saltiness? Is your light dimming from lack of tending to it? Or are you tasty, bright and shining?
We visited Cumberland Gap National Park when we were in the area a few years ago, but today’s hike was new. The drive to the Park takes just under an hour, and if you look back on our previous post, you’ll see where I described the drive as scary.
After today, I now remember why I said the drive was scary! Not many patches of straight road, few guardrails and steep drop-offs! But it was gorgeous this morning with the Fall leaves and frost covering everything! And promised to be an exceptional day!
The top of one of the mountains we drove up was 15 degrees warmer than in the valley where the Visitor Center is located, which is highly unusual. Normally, the temperatures are reversed. Today we had 54⁰ at the top and dropped to 36⁰ in the valley. It’s okay that it was cool today, because by the time we reached the top of the mountain, we were wishing we had on shorts!
Gorgeous view!
Driving from the Visitor Center to the trailhead, we passed through three states in five minutes! I kid you not! We were in Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky in a snap! And North Carolina was just a hop, skip and jump away!
We were in search of the 10-mile hike to the White Rocks and Sand Cave. We were kinda surprised there weren’t really any white rocks to be seen at the end of our hike, but you could see them from the road. Here’s what I found about them:
The White Rocks cliffs once served as a landmark for early settlers who were traveling to the Cumberland Gap… one of the early gateways through the southern Appalachian Mountains. It is estimated that around a quarter million settlers passed through the gap prior to 1810, on their way to Kentucky and the Ohio Valley. These massive cliffs made of (and named for) white quartzite pebbles imbedded in sandstone must have been nice site for these early travelers, meaning they were only a day’s walk away from the gap.
The tunnel is almost a mile long, but it was just completed in 1996.
We were very surprised to learn that!
The road took us through a residential neighborhood.
We thought we only had a quarter mile to go, but when we got there,
there was another sign saying the end was an additional .3 miles!
It was lying on this leaf in the middle of the trail, and didn’t move.
We thought it might be dead, but it wasn’t.
We actually saw two more before we returned to the Jeep.
I walked on, noticed Blaine wasn’t with me and found him holding the spider so they could take pictures. : )
What a climb! 2,300’ elevation change! Beautiful hike! But what a phenomenal place to sit and eat lunch! We determined later that the smoky haze we could see, really was the Great Smoky Mountains! After lunch, I managed to stuff my vest into my tiny little pack, and tied my hoodie around my waist, then we were good to go again.
We left there and went in search of the Sand Cave. We’d seen a picture on one of the park’s information boards, but it didn’t look like much. We actually considered (for just a moment) about not hiking to it because we were already pretty worn, but we did it anyway.
We’re certainly glad we did! Wow! Of course, the pictures will never do it justice!
It took us roughly 4 ½ hours to get back to the Jeep, bone tired.
It was decided that, since we were close by, we’d drive over to the Pinnacle Overlook. We knew we’d been there before, but we forgot that you had to leave the parking lot and hike to it! We’re not only gluttons for food, we’re gluttons for punishment! Ugh!
We made it, and were nearly beheaded by an airplane! Very surprising they’d fly that close to the overlook!
By the time we got home, we could hardly get out of the Jeep. We failed to take into consideration that we’ve done no substantial hiking for four months. Hopefully, we won’t pay too dearly for it. Aleve at bedtime should help.
On the other, we have a couple who puts their two cats on leashes and walk them in the ‘yard’. : )
Today was “Fifties Day” at Harper’s Kindergarten. 😊
