Norris Dam State Park is located in Rocky Top, TN. It is only about 20ish minutes from Big Ridge State Park, which is actually where we stayed when we came to visit. Norris Dam was a very beautiful park, the scenery is just astounding. Although the dam is somewhat the "selling point" of the park, it has a lot more to offer. There are 10 standard cabins, 19 historic CCC cabins, and a campground. We did not stay here, but the historic cabins looked very similar to the cabins at Big Ridge. There is a grist mill with a gift shop inside, a thrashing barn, and a museum. There are several marinas in the area, so this is a good park for people to come in on boats or who want to take their boat out to fish. We did not see any swimming areas, but there is a swimming beach at Big Ridge. There are hiking trails and the forests you walk through were just beautiful. I wish we had had more time to go walking through them. We went to one of the picnic areas and had lunch and I let the kids play on the playground for a bit. And I really can't say enough how pretty the scenery really was in this area. We did not really get out and explore the towns much, we only drove from Big Ridge over to Norris Dam, and the 20-25 minute drive did not have much as far as restaurants or shopping. There may have been a lot in a different direction, we just never saw it.
