Outdoor attractions beckon visits throughout East Tennessee

Whether summer fun means biking or hiking, canoeing or camping, bird watching or backpacking, swimming or skiing, rafting or riding horses, East Tennessee has plenty of parks in which to play.

The nation’s most-visited national park is virtually in our backyard. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers more than 850 miles of maintained trails, ranging from short ones to strenuous treks that may require backcountry camping.

Intrepid souls who aspire to a longer-running challenge may aim for the Great Smoky Mountains 900-Miler Club. It’s an association of hikers who have done all the maintained trails in the park.
Why?

“Once you have felt the cathedral-like sacredness of the Great Smoky virgin forests, their wonderful presence can become impressed in your memory, a part of you, a magnet; yet in the same moment, feelings of overwhelming sadness to see what has been taken from us all, for this was our heritage. Now, only fragments of these great forests remain,” explains a 900-Miler Club Web site, http://members.aol.com/gs900miler.

Of course, not everyone aspires to climb such heights – at least on foot. An auto tour of the park also affords majestic views of mountain vistas and weathered historic buildings.

More than 270 miles of road, mostly paved, wind through the Smokies. The park itself comprises more than one-half million acres, making it one of the largest national areas in the East.

Anyone can enjoy the Smokies, and summer is a fine time to do so. It helps to start early in the day, because the busy season has begun.
Other less-populated parks and forests abound in East Tennessee. They include Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Cherokee National Forest, and Big Ridge and Norris Dam state parks.

Big South Fork in Oneida comprises 125,000 acres on the Cumberland Plateau. The area protects its namesake, the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, along with tributaries.

Activities include hiking, horseback riding, camping and fishing. Visitors can check out the Blue Heron Mining Community. It was a coal-mining town that the Stearns Coal and Lumber Co. owned. A pleasant ride on the Big South Fork Scenic Railway from Stearns goes into Blue Heron.

Cherokee National Forest, which stretches from Chattanooga to Bristol, is the largest tract of public land in the state. Its 640,000 acres have everything from waterfalls to whitewater rapids. Recreation sites include Ocoee Whitewater Center in the Ocoee/Hiwassee Ranger District and Indian Boundary in the Tellico Ranger District.

Big Ridge and Norris Dam state parks lie closer to Knoxville and near each other. Big Ridge, on the southern shore of TVA’s Norris Reservoir, offers guided nature tours, backcountry camping and more.

Norris Dam, on the same reservoir, features hiking trails through deeply forested valleys and ridges, boating, camping, swimming, fishing, tennis, badminton, basketball, horseshoes and volleyball.

Summer is a perfect time to slow down and explore the gifts of nature and nearby activities that might otherwise be taken for granted.