Good country. Better stories.
Join the waitlist
Fall Creek Falls pouring over a sandstone rim into a forested gorge.

Regions

The Cumberland Plateau

The southern end of the Appalachian Plateau: a tableland of nearly horizontal sandstone and shale, dissected into deep gulfs and gorges, with the Sequatchie Valley splitting it lengthwise.

Fall Creek Falls, Cumberland Plateau, TennesseeCredit

Flat on top, steep at the edges.

Up top the Cumberland Plateau is close to level, a tableland of sandstone and shale still lying nearly the way it was laid down. The interest is at the edges and in the gorges, where streams have cut down through the hard caprock into deep gulfs, waterfalls and overhangs.

The Sequatchie Valley splits it lengthwise in Tennessee, and Lookout Mountain carries the plateau south into Georgia and Alabama.

Forested slopes and the valley below, seen from the brow of a mountain.
View from Lookout MountainCredit

Landscapes

Fall Creek Falls pouring over a sandstone rim into a forested gorge.
Cumberland PlateauSandstone rims & deep gulfs
Forested walls of Savage Gulf falling away in folds below a sandstone rim, under a summer sky.
The South CumberlandSewanee, the Savage Gulf & the Fiery Gizzard
Forested slopes and the valley below, seen from the brow of a mountain.
Lookout MountainThe long tableland from Chattanooga south
The long, level crest of Pigeon Mountain above a wide winter pasture.
Pigeon MountainCaves, sinks & the Rocktown boulders
Pasture and scattered trees on the floor of McLemore Cove, Lookout Mountain a long blue wall beyond.
McLemore CoveThe farm cove between Lookout & Pigeon
Lookout Valley and the ridges beyond it, seen from high on Lookout Mountain.
Lookout ValleyThe breached anticline under Lookout's west face
The long, flat floor of the Sequatchie Valley in late winter, farms and woodlots between the plateau walls.
Sequatchie ValleyThe straight valley that splits the plateau
The Tennessee River winding through its forested gorge below sandstone outcrops, under a broken sky.
Walden RidgeThe plateau's eastern strip above the valley
A forested mountainside under low cloud on a grey morning.
Crab Orchard MountainsDetached peaks standing on the plateau
Steep wooded coal mountains folded one behind another in northern Campbell County.
Cumberland MountainsCoal mountains of the northern plateau
The Obed River bending through its sandstone gorge below forested bluffs.
The Obed and Emory GorgesSandstone river gorges of the Obed system

Key places

All peaks and landmarks
  1. The rounded crest of Frozen Head seen through bare winter branches from Castle Rock.
    Frozen Head3,324 ft · The high point of a state natural area in Tennessee's Cumberland Mountains
  2. Fall Creek Falls pouring over a sandstone rim into a forested gorge.
    Great Stone DoorA crack through the sandstone rim of Savage Gulf

Map

Locator map of The Cumberland Plateau, showing 10 placesTennesseeNorth CarolinaGeorgiaAlabamaCumberland PlateauThe South CumberlandLookout MountainPigeon MountainLookout ValleySequatchie ValleyWalden RidgeCrab Orchard MountainsCumberland MountainsFrozen Head
Range, at the center point given on its page SummitNo boundaries are drawn. State lines: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the Field Guide

Living in the Cumberland Plateau

Species and habitats with a sourced record in the Cumberland Plateau's ranges or on its summits.

Open the Field Guide

Doghobble Magazine

We're making a magazine.

A big print magazine about the Southern Appalachians. Join the waitlist and we'll tell you when the first issue can be ordered.

Free, and not a subscription. The waitlist hears first when the first issue can be ordered. The letters come only if you tick the box. Unsubscribe from either at any time. Privacy.