We’ve been to all of the North Carolina State Parks, so now we’re starting to branch out! We recently took a trip to Tennessee to visit a couple of parks and Cumberland Mountain State Park was our first Tennessee State Park. It’s located in Crossville, about an hour and a half from both Knoxville and Chattanooga. The park sits on a small lake and has its own restaurant that is open 6 days a week (closed Mondays). There are multiple options for overnight stays including a campground with over 140 sites, 36 cabins (6 are dog friendly for a $20/pet per night fee) and backcountry campsites.
We arrived later in the afternoon, so we took a nice walk around Byrd Lake before checking out the cabins then heading over to our campsite for the night. We were at site #144, which I felt like was more secluded than some of the other sites. I think all of the sites are set up for RVs, so this campground does feel more like an RV park where there is minimal privacy in between sites. Ours did have trees along half of it, and we positioned our tent so we were facing our car and had our own little space.
In the morning we got up early to hike the Pioneer Short Loop Trail to the Swinging Bridge. This was a perfect early morning walk-it was a flat 2 mile trail that meandered along Byrd Lake. The Swinging Bridge does live up to its name and has quite a bit of movement (which Axel was not fond of). After this hike we made a quick stop by the Park Office to get our Tennessee State Park Passport and our first stamp!
Overall this is a good little park to stay at while exploring the area. There are only 6 hiking trails, covering 13 miles throughout the park. If I stayed here again I would try to stay in a cabin versus the campground (but they did a have a 2 night minimum which is why we didn't do that for this trip). Enjoy!
Park Details:
ADDRESS: 24 Office Dr. Crossville, TN 38555
HOURS: The Day Use Area is open 7am-10pm (CST)
ENTRANCE FEE: No Entrance Fee!
TRAILS: 13 miles of Hiking Trails and 2 miles of Mountain Bike Trails
ACTIVITIES: Birding, Fishing, Golfing, Hiking, Mountain Biking, Camping, Paddling, & Swimming
DOG RULES: Dogs must be on a leash and are not allowed in park buildings. Please pick up after your pet!
ADDITIONAL INFO: Cumberland County is just open the line where Central Standard Time begins. If you are coming from the East, just remember that you will lose an hour when arriving at this park!
Check out our videos about this Park on instagram @axel.theadventurepup and TikTok @axeltheadventurepup
