Hiking to Rattlesnake Falls in Ocoee, Tennessee

This past weekend was mostly spent out in Ocoee, TN, which you know is where our farm is, and it was one of the best couple of days in recent memory.

Our friends Nick and Luka are in town and they’re staying at Matt & Beau’s place, so we drove out there to meet up with everyone before heading to the trail. Have you ever been hiking on this scenic trail before? It was so much fun and only mildly challenging, even the most novice hiker could do it.

Our kids had a blast and didn’t complain once (okay, they started complaining about the last 20 minutes on the way back, but I call that a win).

Matt assigned each of our kids a little task to be in charge of along the way, with Anna being the “medic” and, ironically, she ended up being the only one who actually needed to use the health kit Matt brought (her heels kept rubbing on her water shoes and we put some band-aids on the back to help).

It was a hot and humid day, but we found relief in all the shade from the trees along the trail. Still, I sweated so much and it felt so good.

There were so many little creeks to cross along the way. The kids were in heaven. They were free to get as wet as they wanted.

Waiting for us at the end of the trail was this incredible waterfall. It felt like we had all entered a new world on a different planet. No one else was there the entire time, so we had the whole place to ourselves to swim and jump and splash around. Paradise.

The boys were totally fearless, taking turns jumping off the rocks into the water below. I did not partake in that particular activity. Instead, I went to go pee and slipped on some rocks and bruised my shoulder. That’s my luck!

After swimming for a few hours, we made our way back through the trail to head home. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon with our babies and best friends. Fresh air, exploration, exercise, and so many good memories made. A huge thank you to Matt for organizing this incredible afternoon, one that our kids (and us!) won’t soon forget.

If you’ve never hiked to Rattlesnake Falls, I highly recommend it!