Days 207-210 - Guntersville, Nickajack, and the Grand Canyon of Tennessee

This next stretch is one of the prettiest we've seen along the rivers.  The high cliffs, beautiful homes, and green hillsides make for a breathtaking journey.  We left Alred Marina after church on Sunday and enjoyed the scenery along the lake. 

Alred Marina

Some of the beautiful homes in Guntersville Lake:

One of my favorites

A beautiful home with lots of stone. It's hard to see in this picture, but there are chairs in front of the house that match the color of the stone work.

 There were lots of unusual sights along the river and lake today.

Sorry the picture isn't clear, but notice the large open area to the right of our boat.

This is what it actually looks like! Notice there is a red buoy on the right - DO NOT GO BEYOND THE BUOY! That is floating island of weeds in very shallow water.

Fisherman, however, love it!

This was an unusual sight - buoys with their anchors ready to deploy into the river.

This guy loves his flags!

The owner of this blind must have been in the army?

Our anchorage for the evening was in Raccoon Creek.  The information we had was a minimum depth of 5 feet.  We found 3 1/2 feet, but made it through to a little bit deeper water.  Near the center of the bay we found 10 feet and called it quits.  We were all alone in the bay in 90+ degree heat so we took advantage and took cold showers on deck.

Our gorgeous sunset at anchor.

It was a beautiful morning to wind our way back through the shallow water to the Tennessee River...

...going under this beautiful bridge...

...and going through Nickajack Lock with one other boat with hardly any wait at all!

As we continued up Nickajack Lake we watched for Raccoon Mountain as the landmark that tells us we are in the Grand Canyon of Tennessee.  This is not anything like the Grand Canyon of Arizona - its a canyon of trees and boulders.

Raccoon Mountain

The birds love this pile of rocks

This is an active quarry - the cliffs literally glow when the sun shines on them.

I love this house nestled on a hill surrounded by trees yet a gorgeous view of the lake.

The beauty of hills, cliffs and trees.

Large boulders are not uncommon along the shore...

....making access to the lake a bit challenging at times.

More fun and different sights along the way:

 We can't figure out what this stage is for.  A very unusual venue with Coca Cola signs mounted on the stage. You can see some bleachers on the upper deck, under the curved roof.

A herd of donkeys/mules/horses!

How old is this barn and what in the world is the little shed to the left?

This is quite the set up, motor homes, house boat, and a tree house!  Can you say family vacation spot?

He drives and she reads - nice!

 Signs that tragedy strikes everywhere. 

We had difficulty setting our anchor that night. We are used to muddy bottoms that the anchor sinks into.  This time we had a fairly strong current and a seemingly rocky bottom that the anchor kept skipping across.  We finally thought it had settled and went in to cook dinner.  Around sunset we heard a strange scraping noise and Bob discovered our anchor was dragging!  Not enough to set off the anchor alarm yet, but it would go off shortly.  At least it wasn't midnight!  We pulled up the anchor and tried 3 more places before we were finally were convinced we would be safe for the night.  I set the anchor alarm on a very small radius so we would know immediately if we started to slip again.  We slept the night through ;)

The rest of the pictures are houses along the lake that I found enjoyable so feel free to skip this portion.

 Spiral stairs to the look out!

One of the smallest houses.

A larger one but I love the stone work on the shore.

 Many older homes along here, looks like this one has been added on to many times.  Even has a shed for the animals!

The rocks are part of the landscaping of their yards.

Not sure I would call this a "cabin"!

 The stone work on the house is as beautiful as the stonework on the shore.

 One of the more unusual homes. 

and another.

Poor boat house has seen better days, but an interesting look at the under side.

Houses and cliffs.

We loved this house on the shore with the cliffs in the background.

This house was so hard to shoot as it is white but well worth the 20 pictures it took to get a good one.  Such interesting lines.  Their view of the lake must be spectacular.

More houses on the cliff.

A close up of my favorite.

Anchored in Racoon Creek, Guntersville, Alabama - 10/1

Anchored at Williams Island, Nickajack Lake, Tennessee - 10/2

Anchored in Burns Island, Nickajack Lake, Alabama - 10/3