Day Hike to Pocket, Dayton, TN

One of my favorite escapes from school and life has always been a little known waterfall nicknamed Sanctuary falls. Few know of its existence, fewer still have the skill to find it, and even less have actually made the trip. This beautiful cascade is a mear 15 min from the parking lot of Pocket (Snow Laurel Pocket Wilderness, Dayton TN) off the main path to the right.

Today's adventure begins as soon as you make 1-3 hours of free time. Grab a group of friends, or take a significant other and head our to pocket! Just a short hike in, you come across a beautiful wooden bridge over Richland creek. Are you ready? Thats right, now we explore! I first found these beautiful cascades by chance, just wandering up the creek and looking around. You can either go up on the east(parking lot) side of the creek, and scale some large boulders, or explore up the west side, which has more of a path to the top set of falls. However, most of the pictures you see here are all from the east side. Another thing to keep in mind is that this set of cascades is very temper mental and requires a good amount of rain in order to be flowing strong. The more rain, the better the view. Now, your adventure up here can take many turns. Bring a hammock for a nice afternoon with a cool breeze, take a crash pad to the west side of the creek for some bouldering, hike a climbing rope up to the top on the east side for a sports route 5.11 and 5.12 climb, or pack a lunch and have a picnic at the mouth to the cave where the creek comes out from and under a beautiful waterfall.

Looking for something more peaceful, and away from where everyone else can get? There is a dead or dying tree right in front of the cave that can be climbed to reach the rock ledge above. Carefully navigate your way over the slick rock shelf and creek waters to the outcropping above that looks out on sanctuary falls. Other routes exist, but none are as direct, fast or fun!

Ah, behold sanctuary fall. This was my place of peace and quite all through college. Bringing and ENO hammock, some webbing, and a hydroflask, and this became an awesome campsite, day hike with a nap, or just a place to be still and know that He is God.

welcome to my adventure blog!

Welcome to Adventures -Universe! Our Blog is going to be chalk full of fun adventures for you to do with friends and family all over the east coast, and eventually even nation wide. My wife Ashley and I have spend many our our courting days out adventuring in the Chattanooga, and Dayton, TN areas. With us having both been Rock climbing instructors and lifeguards at YMCA Camp Ocoee, our passion for adventure and outdoor fun is never quenched. Thus, we decided to write our stories down and share them with the world. In addition to our own adventures, we thrive on introducing others to God's creation, and showing them the amazing things that nature has in store. Thus you will also get to read about some of our dear friends and family, and their crazy adventures from time to time. The best part about this new venture of ours is that we have every intention to continue our passion for adventure, thus continually having new stories to tell, new adventure ideas for you college students who need a day off, and great group ideas all around the area. We will also be able to share great gear discounts that we have found, and get you hooked up with all the outdoor gear you could possibly need to have an adventure of your own.

All of our adventure ideas will also be archived in the forum so you can comment, discuss and share ideas. If you have had an awesome adventure of your own that you would like to share, please feel free to email it to us, so that we can share it with everyone!

Now, Get off the computer, and go have an adventure!