Day Hiking in Cedars of Lebanon State Park

The KTF Blog rolled into Wilson County on Saturday to check out the trails at Cedars of Lebanon. After a quick lunch at the picnicking area, we crossed the road to find the Hidden Springs trailhead, which the park bills as an easy, 5-mile loop trail. Actually a 4.4-mile trail, according to a reputable source in the hiking community, the Hidden Springs trail does offer a connection to the 0.5-mile Limestone Sink Trail (also a loop trail) which, when combined, creates a 4.9-mile hike.

Along the Limestone Sink Trail

 

The Limestone Sink Trail, like all of the trails at Cedars of Lebanon, is very easy to navigate. In fact, all of us were in walking shoes, and we had no problems whatsoever. We did have one slip, but that can happen when traversing any natural surface trail. The terrain is basically flat, but that doesn't detract from the scenery. We spotted many sinks and rock outcroppings as we moved through the forest. Unfortunately, Hidden Springs itself was dry, which was no surprise due to the dry weather we've been experiencing lately.

 

Dry now, but creek water will again flow into Hidden Springs

 

Eastern Red Cedar forest

 





The Cedar Forest Trail was next. This is advertised as a 2-mile trail, but the aforementioned local hiking authority found it to be 1.75 miles in length. Similar in terrain to the longer Hidden Springs Trail, this trail passes through natural rock gardens, which are known as cedar glades. Never far from the hum of the road, this is nevertheless quite an enjoyably peaceful trail.

 

Trail cutting through a rock garden

 

Although the trails were, in my opinion, very easy, after 6.65 of hiking one of the junior members of our team was just about done for the day. Because we'd hiked what we'd set out to hike, we decided to point the KTF Blogmobile toward the exit. But first we needed to find a restroom. We not only found the restrooms but, as an additional bonus, yet another trail to explore! Our junior member was not impressed with this discovery, particularly after she saw this warning posted at the trailhead:

 

Cave may be closed, but trail is open

 

After we agreed the trail was open, we proceeded to have a peek at Jackson Cave from a safe distance. The cave is a very short walk from the sign, which is located behind the nature center. Having had our looksee at the closed cave, we turned around and toured the nature center's butterfly garden. Of course it's no longer butterfly season, so we didn't actually see any butterflies. Our timing for this park was totally off: insufficient precipitation for the many sinks and Hidden Springs, White-Nose Syndrome at the cave, and no butterflies at the butterfly garden. But this did not diminish our experience at Cedars of Lebanon. Only our first visit to the park, we were impressed with its beauty and hope to come back again, maybe for a short camping trip. And while we didn't witness any butterflies at the garden, we were fortunate enough to spy this pelican:





   

 

Jackson Cave

 

Until next time . . . happy trails!