Spring Has Arrived at Knottcho Holler Adventures
There’s a moment every spring when the mountains wake up all at once. One morning the ridgelines are bare and grey, and the next, they’re blushing pink and white with blooms you can spot from half a mile away. Up here on our 200+ acres in the Appalachian Mountains of Pinetop, Kentucky, that moment is something you feel in your chest.
If you’ve never spent a spring morning in the mountains, let us paint you a picture.
The Trees Come Alive
The show starts early with the redbud trees — their tiny magenta blossoms appearing before a single leaf unfurls, dotting the hillsides like scattered embers. Close behind come the serviceberries, their delicate white clusters catching the light along the trail edges.
Then the dogwoods open up. There’s nothing quite like hiking through a dogwood grove in full bloom, the four-petaled white flowers hovering like little lanterns in the understory. Along the creek bottoms and lower hollows, wild plum and apple trees add their own sweet perfume to the air — a scent that drifts right through your cabin window if you leave it cracked at night.
By mid-spring, the tulip poplars — Kentucky’s state tree — are stretching their orange-and-yellow blooms toward the sky, and the whole mountain feels like it’s been repainted overnight.
The Animals Are Back
The wildlife doesn’t waste any time either. Spring mornings at Knottcho Holler are filled with sound long before the sun clears the ridge.
Wild turkeys strut through the meadows in the early light, and white-tailed deer move through the tree line with their new fawns close behind. Keep your eyes on the sky and you’ll likely spot red-tailed hawks riding the thermals above the ridgeline, or catch the flash of a pileated woodpecker working its way up an old oak.
Down near the water, great blue herons stand motionless at the creek’s edge, and the wood ducks are back in the hollows. If you’re up early enough — and quiet enough — you might even catch a black bear moving through the far tree line, going about her spring business.
At dusk, the whip-poor-wills start calling, and the fireflies begin their slow blink in the tall grass. It’s the kind of evening that makes you forget you ever had a to-do list.
The Best Way to Take It All In
Spring is a beautiful time to explore our hiking trails and mountain biking paths — the mud has mostly settled by late April, and the canopy is still open enough to let the light pour through. It’s also prime time for fishing, kayaking, and just sitting on your cabin porch with a cup of coffee, watching the fog lift off the hollows below.
Weekends fill up fast once the weather turns, so if you’re thinking about a spring getaway, now’s the time to plan ahead.
