Walls of Jericho - tornado damage?

[NateKona]

I was wondering if there is storm damage in the Walls of Jericho area.  I am going to be in the area on Wed, May 10th and was hoping to hike the round trip but wasn't going to bother if there is a lot of damage or blow downs.  Anyone have any news of that area after the bad weather last week?

Thanks,
NateKona

[Joshua Szulecki]

The best I can say is that, looking at the tornado tracks, the nearest tornado was a couple of miles to the NW. I encountered no serious damage in Monteagle last weekend. Your mileage may vary.

[NateKona]

Thanks for the info.  My wife and I are going to give it a try on Wed morning.

NateKona

[NateKona]

FYI

Hiked down to the walls from the Alabama trailhead today and encountered 12 trees across the trail.  Some of them were small enough to step over, but some required a detour or more of a climb over and around the trunk.  Great hike but it was very hot!

NateKona

[willranless]

Thanks for the update NateKona. We had a trip planned into the Sipsey next week, but we had to cancel it due to the closure of all the Sipsey trails from the recent tornadoes. We had decided to head into the Walls of Jericho instead, but I wanted to make sure they were OK for hiking and camping. I spoke to one of the rangers yesterday, and he reported the same thing as you about a few trees down on the hiking trail. He said the horse trail is a different story. He said it may need a bulldozer to open it back up.

[NateKona]

It was our first time there and it was absolutely beautiful down by the walls.  Plenty of water on the waterfall and blue skies everywhere. 

Even with the trees down it wasn't a bad hike at all.  I was backpacking in Sipsey the week after Hurricane Opal came through and that was absolutely miserable.

NateKona