Lake Guntersville through Nickajack Lock

Tuesday August 21 we left Goose Pond Colony Marina with our sights on returning to the great state of Tennessee in the South Pittsburg area on the TN River.  We haven't been in Tennessee since
August 12 (for 9 days we were in Mississippi and Alabama).  Although we had a great time and experienced a lot of rain and wind, we were glad to see sunshine again which also happened to be the day we arrive back in Tennessee!!

The ride from Goose Pond Marina to Hales Bar Marina was beautiful with lots of green hillsides, but that was about all that area had to offer for almost 30 miles.....we saw only 1 boat the entire 30 miles.

Our view for the first half of our journey today

The only boat we see for the first half of our journey today

Once we pass under a railway bridge and under some electrical lines, we are now back into Tennessee and the landscape changes significantly.

Railway Bridge right before we pass from Alabama into Tennessee

Aerial Lines that denote You have Arrived in Tennessee!!  No "welcome" signs on the water!

Eight miles after these aerial lines, we arrive at our next lock, Nickajack.   After we go through this lock, we start seeing lots of great scenery.

Entering Nickajack Lock

I'm sure you think all locks look the same, but let me assure you, every single lock we have gone through has had a separate set of circumstances and challenges associated with it.  We were in and out of this lock pretty quickly.  Nickajack Lake is the 2nd shortest lake on the Tennessee River, but it has some incredibly interesting tidbits we will share in our story (you're welcome!).

Seven miles after going thru the lock, we arrive at our next marina for the night, Nickajack Resort and Marina.  It was formerly called Hales Bar Marina, which was the location of Hales Bar Lock back in 1913, but after the lock was completed, there were issues with it leaking and it was decided it was more cost effective to build a new lock than repair that one -- so they built Nickajack Lock and Dam in 1968 and closed Hales Bar Lock; however, the old Hales Bar Lock still stands in the water today.  The Marina store is below.  It is more run down in person than it is in the picture.  Look at the chairs on the front porch!!  It did have good wi-fi, a covered slip and nice folks there.  It could use some serious updating....

Hales Bar Marina now named Nickajack Resort and Marina

Below is the old Hales Bar Lock and Dam that is falling apart but still stands in the River.

Old Hales Bar Dam still standing in the middle of TN River

Sign on the Old Hales Bar Dam -- Hope you had a Dam Good Time...

Below is the huge stage on a barge Chattanooga uses for their big summer concerts downtown.  They move this huge stage on a barge 30 miles to downtown Chattanooga.    

Big Stage on a Barge used for Concerts in downtown Chattanooga

On Wednesday morning, we left Hales Bar/Nickajack Resort and Marina.  Within a mile of leaving the marina, there is a 10-mile stretch of river known as the "Grand Canyon of the Tennessee".  The similarity to the Grand Canyon out west is that the mountains are huge and the very tall rock formations and valleys here on the TN River look similar except the ones here are covered in green trees. The river gets very narrow; however, the river also gets as deep as 135 feet.  We typically ride in about 12 feet of water.  The reason the river is so deep is that the river follows an ancient earthquake fault.  it is also in this area that the river has many changes in the current with swirling waters.  In the "old days", this part of the river had numerous boating accidents as the waters became uncontrollable because of the unusual and unpredictable currents.  The waters are not that way today -- at least not in our experience.

See Rocks near top of Mountains and beautiful greenery and Trees

Also the houses in this area are right on the water and are very pretty but not too big and gaudy.  This is one home we thought looked especially nice.

Nice home on water front

Within another 10 miles of seeing the gorgeous homes, mountains, rock formations and water, we enter Eastern Time Zone -- we now know Chattanooga is coming up soon!!  As we approach Chattanooga, we see a plethora of different sites and scenes we haven't seen before.....you'll have to wait for the next story for those details.  We had a "hoot" in Chattanooga.  The downtown area, lighting, sunrise, sunset, etc was incredible.