Come along with me as I solo hike out to the Walls of Jericho and check out several caves along the way. The Walls of Jericho is well known for it's beauty and biological diversity and is made up of 21,453 acres split between Tennessee and Alabama. Tennessee has 8,943 acres that is called the Bear Hollow Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and Alabama has a 12,510 acre section known as the of the Walls of Jericho tract which is part of the larger 60,732-acre James D. Martin-Skyline WMA. You can park and hike in at the Alabama trailhead, or park 2 miles north at the Tennessee trailhead and hike in. Another option if you have multiple vehicles, is to park one at both and do a through hike!
While the Alabama trail is shorter at 6 miles round trip, it is more steep and more well traveled. The Tennessee side is longer at 9 miles, is less steep, and less traveled. I would rate either trail as difficult if you are not used to hiking as you do lose a little more than 1,000 feet of elevation on the way in, which means you gain it on the way back out. If you are used to hiking, I would rate it as moderate.
On my hike in from the Tennessee side, I passed by numerous large sandstone bluffs as well as large limestone boulders covered with moss as I made my way down to the valley floor. The beauty here can be surreal sometimes, especially during the fall and one of the things I like best about hiking alone is the peace and quiet. It's good to get out in nature all alone every once in a while to recharge. We have been in a drought the last few months so there was not much water once I made it into the valley floor where Mill Creek and Hurricane Creek merge together. At the walls, where there is normally a large beautiful sinking waterfall, there was none. This was no surprise to me as I knew we have not had much rain lately and this is typically our driest time of the year. This also gave me the opportunity to poke into the cave at the base of the falls. Unfortunately, it was tight with sand and cobblestone so I was not able to fit no more than a few feet. I then checked out the second cave at the Walls and was able to traverse about 150 feet. On my hike back up, I decided to take a side trail down to Mill Creek Blow Hole. Here I lost the 400 feet of elevation that I had just gained on my way back up as I now made way way back down to the valley floor to explore the caves there. Unfortunately, I ran out of daylight and Jason was expected me to be off the trail at dark so I wasn't able to poke into all the holes I had wanted to on this day.
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