A NOTE TO OUR READERS:
"Visit the South's Arch Country" is from the November 2002 issue of Southern Living. Because prices, dates, and other specifics are subject to change, please check all information to make sure it's still current before making your travel plans.
We Southerners share a deep pride in the glories of our land. We regard
the Smokies as our home mountains. We claim the Everglades as our own wetland
wonder. The Mississippi, that sprawling giant, courses along a storied route
through our heartland and our history. Far fewer among us, though, realize that
our region possesses another landscape marvel, just as fantastic but far less
celebrated. The South's arch country is a geological rarity, a surprising jewel
of nature's careful creation.
Known as the Northern Cumberland Plateau, this
upland region slants through north Tennessee northeastward into Kentucky. Part
of a tableland laid down by ancient seas, then lifted up during the uneasy ages
of our Earth, it appears today as anything but the level bed of an ocean floor.
Blanketed with thick forest and cut through by a web of streams, creeks, and
rivers, the area features some of the most astounding gorges and dramatic
formations in the entire Eastern United States. Here, the plateau boasts more
natural arches than any place outside the famed arch land of Utah, and the best
time to study these wonders is when winter has stripped the trees of their
leaves and laid bare the surrounding vistas. Follow us to some of the area's
best and most accessible sites.
