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Feature article
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Dolan Branch among Bays Mountain’s best-kept secrets
By Leigh Ann Laube
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Editor’s Note: As part of our Hidden Treasures series, which runs each Thursday during the summer months, GoTriCities staff writers highlight places and events right here in our own back yard that many folks don’t know even exist. Got an idea or suggestion? We’d love to hear it. Write to the Kingsport Times-News, c/o Jessica Fischer, at 701 Lynn Garden Drive, Kingsport, Tenn. 37662 or e-mail jfischer@timesnews.net.
It was a gorgeous day to be outdoors, an opinion shared by hundreds who visited Bays Mountain Park on Saturday. But unlike those other visitors, we weren’t there to take in the planetarium, the animal habitats, walk around the lake or fish from the dam.
Instead, we were there to explore Dolan Branch Trail — see the waterfall, climb on the boulders in the creek and follow the trail all the way down to Eastman’s Recreation Area.
From 1916 until 1944, the lake atop Bays Mountain served as the water supply for the city of Kingsport. In 1915, trees and buildings were removed from the area to be covered by the lake. In 1916, work began on the dam, with stone quarried about 150 feet below the dam itself. All of the sandstone rocks in the dam were quarried in the Dolan Branch area. Today, Dolan Branch creek carries excess water from the dam and lake down through the recreation area.
Ken Childress, the park’s interpretive services supervisor, had told me that Dolan Branch Trail is one of the least known, yet most beautiful areas in the park. He was exactly right. My kids and I were alone for the entire few hours we were on the trail. The trail begins below the dam — on the opposite side of the road — and for a little while we could hear car traffic above us moving in and out of the park. Eventually, though, we left all sounds of civilization behind.
My son decided that the area was reminiscent of Middle-Earth from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (filmed almost entirely in New Zealand, by the way), so that set the tone for the day. Our first stop, of course, was the waterfall, which had much more than a trickle coming from the lake and dam. A wooden bridge — which provides the perfect vantage point for picture-taking — was built last summer by volunteers from Wal-Mart and replaces the previous bridge, which was 37 years old and had washed away.
After spending time jumping from boulder to boulder, we moved on down the trail. It’s easy to follow because you simply watch for the original black pipe that took water to Kingsport. About a half hour into our walk, we spotted the old water works structure. Childress explained that the structure was where lake water was filtered through sand before it went into town. Adjacent to the filter house there are a series of concrete columns that brought the water pipe from the east side of the creek to the west side where the filter house was located.
It’s a fascinating structure, stuck out there in the middle of “Middle-Earth,” and my kids scrambled to the top. We found an entrance that leads underneath the structure, but since it’s a dark space likely inhabited by snakes and other critters, we decided against exploring further.
Down we continued for probably another hour, still following the black pipe, until we were mostly walking on flat ground.
It was a miserably humid day, and one teenage member of my small group was feeling a bit drained. I had no idea how far we had walked — nor how far it was until we reached the Eastman cabins — and was thrilled when an excited voice came from ahead of us: “We’re here! We’re at the cabins!”
We emptied out at cabin No. 5, which you reach by car by turning left past the picnic registry and the small bridge. A map of the picnic area provided by the Tennessee Eastman Recreation Club shows Dolan Branch flowing through the recreation area beyond the multi-purpose athletic field.
Dolan Branch trail is one of around 20 hiking trails at Bays Mountain. A map of all trails and roads is available at the park.
One suggestion: If you’re not willing to hike back up to Bays Mountain, park a car in the cabins area. We hitched a ride back up — and kudos to Bays Mountain staff for not charging me a second time to enter the park.
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