When you visit a community, do you prefer to go where the locals frequent instead of the places touted by the TV ads, billboards and welcome center brochures?

In Knoxville where I live now, I recently found such a place – the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge. Because of its somewhat hidden location only about 20 minutes from downtown, however, I am not even sure the majority of Knox County residents have been there.

But it is definitely worth the visit for anyone who loves old farmland and scenic vistas of mountains and rivers.

Located off Exit 402 on Interstate 40, it is almost like a miniature Cades Cove, and Chattanoogans might also find slight reminders of Point Park, Greenway Farm, and Reflection Riding.

In fact, it seems to have the full aesthetic offerings one expects on a nature walk or jog without the exertion required at places like the Smokies, or even Signal or Lookout mountains. That is, if one does not care to climb Seven Islands’ mostly barren hill, which is actually the best part.

I went there for the first time recently one free afternoon after becoming curious about it. With its name, I figured it might be a swampy and wooded area, perhaps like Maclellan Island or the Amnicola marsh, and geese and ducks would prefer it more than people would.

I – a lover of pastoral farms -- was completely wrong.

As soon as I rounded on foot one of the trails and came upon a renovated old farmhouse and a neat-looking quilt barn, I felt as though I had come home.

Actually, the place had me at hello, when another unusual barn with a quilt-patterned frame was standing near the parking lot with the welcome appearance of a church greeter.

After passing the second barn, I continued on down the road, admiring the mowed and flat farmland and the pretty French Broad River to my right. I soon came upon another old farmhouse that appeared to be boarded up.

The old structure had a haunting beauty to it, and looked as though it could tell plenty of stories.

I then walked across one of the fields toward the river 100 yards away and found a nice trail, similar to the kind that runs through the fields at Greenway Farm in Hixson.

I eventually began heading back toward my truck on the paved walking and biking road on which I had started, but decided to climb the steep hill to the left.

An approximately 150-yard climb up the hill is required to get to the top, but it is definitely worth it, I realized.

Once near the top, I found all kinds of treasures: rolling and hilly pastureland, a small and hidden lake down the other side of the hill, the foundation of probably a home, and a simply gorgeous view toward the river and the Smokies in the distance.

On the day of my visit, Mother Nature appeared to have painted a fresh coat of rich blue on the sky, and the remaining snow on some of the distant Smoky Mountains looked like cake frosting.

It was one of those late winter days when pleasantries of the coming spring – mostly warmer temperatures -- had arrived, but such adversaries as ticks and snakes had not.

I stood at the top looking off toward the Smokies and the French Broad River, and I did not want to leave.

Not only did I look and look and look, but I also listened. And about all I could hear – other than an occasional goose and a few distant gunshots from hunters or target shooters – was the sound of quietness.

It was wonderful.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net