Located in Rock Island, Tennessee, this state park has beauty that is unmatched. Out of the 20 Tennessee state parks we have visited, this one is the top for the most breath-taking views. Your camera will be full and it will be almost impossible to not be in awe as you walk through this park.
Right before you get to the main park, there is a pull-off where you can park and see the gorge from above. If you are not able to handle the hike down into the gorge (it is considered strenuous and has a lot of steps), you can still see so much without having to walk. Across the street is the little 'fairy castle' as my kids like to call it, and the old cotton mill that closed in 1902 is there to view as well. The cotton mill is all boarded up, but you can still see the outside.
Once you get up into the main part of the park, where the Visitor Center is, there are multiple picnic areas where you can enjoy a nice lunch with great views and just enjoy nature. There are multiple trails that you can hike, with varying degrees of difficulty. The Blue Hole trail is considered strenuous, and it also had multiple stairs, went under small waterfalls where the steps are under a couple of inches of water, had planks that you had to walk across, and if you make it through that, the rest of the trail is literally through the creek. We actually found 2 crawfish on the stairs because of how much water was on them. If those are too much, the Cunningham Cemetery trail and the Moonshine trail were both very fun, leisurely walks.
The heat could get a bit stifling, especially if you are down in the gorge, where the sun is beating down on you. With a lot of storms coming through, the humidity had us struggling, so going down to the beach was one of favorite activities while at the park. The lake has a huge rock wall across from it, so it was such a beautiful area to swim. Due to the lake being a part of the river, there is always a bit of a flow, which leads a lot of debris to pass through. Last year, the lake was pretty cold. I remember spending a good bit of my time just chilling halfway in because it was too cold to really swim. But this year, the water was pretty warm, and I had a hard time getting out.
The park has 10 cabins, all the same look and style and these were absolutely, hands-down some of our favorite cabins. The cabins in Tennessee are so affordable and cheap as far as cabins go. They may not be anything super nice, but you cannot beat the price. Our cabin had 2 bedrooms downstairs and a loft bedroom upstairs-5 beds altogether, 2 full baths, a kitchen, living room, laundry room, 2 tvs, wifi, a front and back porch, an outside table and fire ring and grill. We really really loved our stay. One big thing we really noticed that is so different from GA's parks-cottages in GA are rarely booked through the week, while TN's cottages are usually booked up even during the week. But in GA, you rarely see your neighbors. I actually prefer seeing people out and about, grilling, playing, riding bikes, etc...and you don't see that in GA's parks at all, but people really do that in TN. We had a fire one evening and you could just look down the whole row of cottages and see every single cabin had people out having fires.
