City Sights: Rutledge Falls

Two events coincided over the past couple weeks which led to our latest weekend adventure:

1. Wal-Mart had a $5 sale on water shoes

2. We bought the Modern Romance audiobook by Aziz Ansari

I try to avoid Wal-Mart as a general rule, but all our toothpaste/deodorant/soap/etc. ran out at once so we found ourselves at Wally World one weekend and I couldn’t resist the cheap water shoes on display (this is why I avoid Wal-Mart). I needed an excuse to use them!

Then, I kept hearing good things about Aziz Ansari’s book Modern Romance, and that the audiobook was even better. I needed an excuse for a long car ride to start listening!

So naturally, $5 water shoes + a new audiobook = we needed to visit a waterfall!

I googled around and found Rutledge Falls about an hour away… perfect! (First on the list was Cummins Falls, but it was closed due to high water levels. The next runner up was Rock Island. Hopefully we will visit all of them eventually!)

We got on the road mid-morning and stopped for lunch at Jiffy Burger in Manchester (home of Bonnaroo).

Halfway between Manchester and Tullahoma, you follow the signs for Rutledge Falls Baptist Church, and park near all the other cars. There are no other signs, and I was pretty sure we were lost, but as you get closer to the trees you start to hear the falls… and that’s how you know you’re in the right spot!

Rutledge Falls is more like a swimming hole, and you have to scramble down a pretty steep and rocky hill to get there. As you get closer to the falls, you can feel the temperature dropping… and on a 90-something degree day, it felt awesome! The scenery was beautiful and I felt like a kid again exploring the creek and surrounding trails. We didn’t know what to expect and assumed there would be a longer trail leading to the waterfalls, but next time I will definitely bring a bathing suit and towel since it’s located right off the road.

Photo dump ahead!