Benton Falls/Mckamy Lake on Chilhowee Mountain in Benton, TN

Some family time was in order, we'd failed to get together the previous two weekends, which included some of us making the trip to Cades Cove and some of us working instead. We all live in Cleveland, TN so we decided the short drive up to Chilhowee and hiking down to the Falls would be fun. This is a great family time hike as it's very easy if you have the time to walk at your leasure. Some of you may be familiar with the Ocoee area since the 1996 Olympic Kayaking event was held not far from Chilhowee mountain. Great scenery abounds everywhere you look, the Ocoee rushing down its banks, or perhaps unseen in the flume. Accessing Chilhowee is easily done by car either by the paved front access or the gravel "backdoor". You can also hike up the mountain or mountbike. Seperate trails for that makes it nice I suppose. I've only rode my bike up and down many of the mountains trails. There are several pull offs for picture taking including a Gazebo, each with very nice views off the mountain. Reaching the parking at McKamy lake we had a quick picnic after making the short hike around the Lake. Which was my first trip ever, I thought I'd been on most of the trails, but guess I never bothered with the Lake loop.

Benton Falls trail is probably as easy a hike as you make it. Given enough time you can make the hike in nearly any condition. For us it was a 41 min trip to the Falls and about 30 min back. Trip to the falls is very easy since it's a gradual up and down trail heading down the mountainside to the falls. Be aware its heavily traveled at times by mountain bikes, but not as much as a few years ago when it was the primary trail for biking. Tons of trails now spread the bikers out pretty well unless its a group ride. The Falls is about 3 miles from the parking lot round trip.

As you can see the falls are pretty, although with a bit of rain they are just amazing.