Heading southwesterly from Murfreesboro, past Spring Hill and Columbia, outdoorspeople can find David Crockett State Park, near Lawrenceburg.

The park entrance sits just outside of historic downtown Lawrenceburg. A sign with a huge map of Tennessee and image of Crockett welcomes park visitors.

Not far inside the park, near a small playground and parking area within the first of the park’s campgrounds, hikers can join a trail that leads to Crockett Falls.

Now, park officials do not promote this trail very well. Seemingly no signage at all indicates the trailhead, and some park employees seem unclear about the exact location of it. Mysterious.

Luckily, Bracken Jr. has obtained a book on Tennessee waterfalls that helped point our party to this trail within David Crockett State Park. To find it, go to Campground 1 and walk into the woods in between campsites 7 and 8. For some reason, it’s extremely difficult to even know this trail is there. However, once a hiking group discovers it, it is a very well-maintained and well-marked Tennessee trail. Painted green rectangles on trees mark the entirety of the trail, which makes for a great walk along the riverside.

This makes Shoal Creek Trail, which runs along the western bank of the Little Shoal Creek, a very secluded 1.4-mile journey (2.8 miles round-trip).

Once out of earshot of the campground, hikers find themselves alone in the forest with primarily only the sounds of the birds and squirrels—maybe an occasional deer or other creature.

For the most part, the trail, which travels over a few small bridges, is fairly level, but just before arriving at Crockett Falls the trail leads up quite a hill. Hikers here find themselves far above the river, with a view of Crockett Falls in the distance, and then must travel downhill during the last portion to arrive at the falls.

(A parking lot sits just off of Crockett Falls, for those who, for whatever reason, would rather drive right up to the feature rather than take this lovely trail.)

Now, Crockett Falls is certainly not the most striking and tall of Tennessee waterfalls. The falls itself is nowhere near the spectacle of Fall Creek, Burgess, Foster or many other beautiful, toweringly tall waterfalls in the state. But it does present a pleasant place to wade in the creek as the falls, the entire width of the creek but only 5 feet tall or so, make a lovely crashing sound as the wide creek plunges continuously.

One positive aspect of driving to the falls would be the cool covered bridge nearby that cars can drive through.

Looking at the park map after our hike, we see that the numerous yellow-marked trails shooting off of Shoal Creek Trail led to another trail of similar length, known as Turkey Ridge Trail.

On the northern end of David Crockett State Park sits Lake Lindsey. Cabins, more campsites and a boat dock are located along the lake’s edge, and a trail circles the lake—the 2.7-mile Crawfish Valley Trail. This trail includes a floating footbridge that crosses over the lake at one point, a popular park site.

Other park features include an amphitheater, a paved workout trail, a bike trail and lots of camping—many seem to enjoy camping at the 1,100-acre state park in southern Middle Tennessee, about 20 miles from the Alabama state line.

A couple of local hikers on the Shoal Creek Trail say they walk that trail often and do not see many people there at all, but many use the paved trail for exercise.

David Crockett State Park also contains a restaurant and a museum, but some are confused by sporadic hours of operation.

Crockett himself settled near the Shoal Creek bank in 1817 and started a powder mill, grist mill and distillery using the creek’s water power.

The famous Tennessee politician—who reportedly did not go by Davy until Disney dubbed him so—served as a Lawrence County commissioner during part of his time in the area. By 1821, though, Crockett left the area and moved west.

Today, hikers, campers, boaters and wildlife watchers can enjoy some of the wooded hills and clear streams where he once ran, preserved as a park for all to use.