Reelfoot Lake State Park in Tennessee
A wooden boardwalk winds through cypress trees along the edge of the lake at Reelfoot Lake State Park in Tennessee.
Recently, a group from our church went to eat lunch at Boyette’s, a catfish restaurant near Reelfoot. Nothing against the rest of the group, which are all fine people, but Laura and I decided to take our own car instead of riding the bus and then see if we could find any adventures after we ate.
It did not take us all that long to find a winding boardwalk that took us through tall cypress trees. And of course, I could not resist taking a boardwalk photo. You can find several boardwalk photos in the Burnsland posts of the past. Just search for “boardwalk” and several will come up. Boardwalks are apparently a subtheme of sorts around here. What can I say? I like what I like.
On the Boardwalk
Here we are enjoying the boardwalk. It was a near-perfect day weather-wise, and we were enjoying our time outside. The lake was nice, and there were constant small waves hitting the cypress tree trunks all around us.
Reelfoot Lake was formed by a series of earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 that caused a large section of cypress-forest land to sink in. The Mississippi River then flowed backward for a time to fill that sunken area with water, creating the lake. The Civilian Conservation Corps built much of the park’s infrastructure in the 1930s, and now the park and lake are popular for fishing and for seeing the bald eagles that nest there every year.
We could have spent more time exploring other trails at Reelfoot, but we needed to head back home. So who knows, perhaps another trip to Reelfoot is in our future?
Adventures
For us, adventures do not have to be anything grand. We do not have to go a long distance away to find adventures. Two hours by car is plenty. And we even passed some other places that we would like to visit in the future that are even closer to home.
What makes it adventurous is that we get to go do things together. We have a good time, we laugh at the silly things we say, we are amazed by nature, and we just get to do stuff. This current season of life has allowed us to do more adventurous (to us) things than we used to, and it has been great. But that is partly because we can find joy in the small things.
Look for joy, fun, and adventure all around you, because it is out there if you are willing to find it.
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. - 1 Timothy 6:12
About the Photos
I gave the first photo a dreamy look, thanks to some Orton Effect processing that gives it that hazy glow. I also intentionally used a yellowish color scheme to add to the dream effect. I liked that look, perhaps in part because it is different than what I have used for most of the photos I have shared in the recent past. That look hopefully makes the photo just a bit more eye-catching.
The second photo gives you a better look at how things looked normally. That one was taken with my iPhone in wide mode at arm’s length, which you can probably guess by my arm leading out of the frame. I decided to leave that one as-is instead of giving it the hopefully-not-over-processed treatment of the first photo.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee and GIMP.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: September 14, 2023
Location: Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee
