Blue Hole Trail

This trail descends about 150 feet to Firescald Creek and the Blue Hole. It’s easy for most of the way, with some steeply rocky going at the end. Starting at the junction, the trail is a total of 0.8 mile out and back.

The forest here is made up of Virginia pine (twisty needles in pairs), American holly in the understory, Canadian hemlock, and fewer hardwoods than in some other areas nearby. You can find ground pine (Lycopodia) beside the trail. Its spores were dried and then ground to powder that was used in old-time flash photography. Both the ground pine and the hemlocks are here because around 12,000 years ago, the climate was much cooler due to glaciers north of us. Those plants that like cooler weather have 

 retreated to the coves of the Plateau for refuge. 

Firescald Creek forms the Blue Hole basin that is at the end of this trail. The “Fire Scald” name may commemorate the “scalded” remains of plants after a forest fire. The long outcrop of rock at Blue Hole, geologists tell us, is Sewanee conglomerate, a sandstone filled with many small pebbles. It covered much of the Plateau and is named for the place it was first identified. Some call it pudding stone.

Swimming here can start as early as mid-March, in a warm year. No floats allowed.