So Who Really Cares?

Tishomingo State Park, less than 20-minutes south of Iuka, Mississippi, offers hiking, rock climbing, camping, swimming, canoeing, fishing, and exploring.  When the weather is hot and humid, in addition to a lake there is a swimming pool in the park for cooling down.  The park has cabins for rent along with RV hookups and tent camping sites.  There is an entry fee of $4 into the park, payable at the entrance gatehouse. 

Like many parks, this one was built by CCC workers during the depression and features many structures for the 1930’s.  There is even an old pioneer cabin built in the early 1800’s that is open for touring. Tishomingo SP is probably best known for its swinging bridge.

From the entrance, the park road winds through thick hardwood forest and rock formations.  At the far end of the road you will find the Swinging Bridge on the right and a dirt parking area, and just a matter of yards farther the park swimming pool hard surface parking lot.  This also serves as the trailhead for Outcropping Trail.

  

Outcroppings Trail is an easy loop hike a little over two-miles in length starting and ending at the swinging bridge.  The hiker is greeted with moss covered rocks and stream beds, brooks, spill wells, caves, outcroppings, boulders and cliffs, and a nice stretch of path paralleling Bear Creek.   I’d recommend hiking the trail counterclockwise (keeping the river on your right) to get the full effect of the large stone outcroppings.  There is a shorter one-mile version of the hike if you take the trail that bisects the loop (if hiked clockwise) at a very large outcropping the leads down to Bear Creek and back to the bridge.

The centerpiece of the trail is the rock outcroppings, water run-offs, and brooks located on the

There were a couple of water features flowing the late January day I hiked the trail.  It is my understanding that after a big rain you can see a good curtain of water running over the lips that form the water features. There is also a natural spring that has been encased in stones to make a crude fountain.  I am told the water flowing from it is suitable for drinking.

It was my first trip to Tishomingo SP and the Outcropping trail so I spent a lot of time stopping and exploring; the hike took me an hour-forty five minutes, but I think you could complete the loop in an hour without much difficulty.

Flat Rock Trail is tougher than Outcroppings Trail, I would rate Flat Rock as moderate; many large stones embedded in the trail and switchbacks on the path add to the difficulty on the first half of the route.  This trail offers several different terrain features – large rocks, open paths through hardwood trees, and lakes side trails with views of Haynes Lake.