Sitting in the middle of an extensive state and local park system, outdoor enthusiasts have a lot of walking trails to choose from in Nashville, Tennessee. But the task at hand is to give you five of the best; how can it be done?
Let’s start with a one-mile loop in the heart of Nashville that will take you past a lake where you are certain to see some folks, young and old, trying their angling luck. And if you need more than the lake to keep your visual interest up, you’ll see an antique locomotive, jet fighter, great gardens, stately trees, and one of Nashville’s iconic buildings: a full size replica of The Parthenon. And, oh yeah, you might very well come across a free concert.
The mile loop at Centennial Park, just a few minutes from Nashville tourist draws such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, is a prime walking trail in the heart of the city. You will find people cruising the loop from the early morning hours until the park closes at 11 p.m. There are no hills and the walking is easy.
In the summer, my wife and I often head to the park in the early evening as the air begins to cool and the fireflies start putting on their show.
If your legs are itching for a longer walk, but you still want to stay close to the downtown area, one of the two main loops at Shelby Bottoms Nature Park should fill the bill.
The park sits on the banks of the Cumberland River. You’ll find some paved trail here-part of a greenway project-as well as primitive trails. Your walk will take you along the Cumberland River, through grasslands, fields, and woods.
The two main choices for this Nashville trail system are the east and west loops. Both are flat and easy walking. But there isn’t a lot of shade along the way, so in the warm months be prepared with hats and plenty of water. If you do the entire east loop you can stretch your hike to 5.2 miles. But don’t worry, there are a couple of places where you can make a turn and shorten the overall hike.
The west loop comes in at 1.8 miles. The terrain is similar to the east loop and again, there is a shortcut if you want to lop off a little of the distance.
A point of pride for civic leaders in Nashville is the side-by-side Edwin and Percy Warner Parks complex. Sitting just nine miles from the heart of downtown Nashville, they are the largest “city” parks in Tennessee, combining for 2684 acres of forest and fields.
They offer an extensive trail system, so hikers can tailor their outings to a variety of distances. In Edwin Warner Park, one of our favorites is the Harpeth Woods Trail. It’s a fairly easy- and fairly popular-loop that runs 2.5 miles through a hardwood and cedar forest. Virtually all of the trail is shaded and you will find restrooms and water at the trailhead. We enjoy this area because once you hit the trail it is easy to imagine yourself bushwhacking through the woods in the days of Daniel Boone.
So far all of our trails have been through Nashville city parks. Their website has a lot of information that might be handy before you hit the trail. You will find specific directions to each park here.
There are also several Tennessee state parks with great walking trails located close in to Nashville. I’ll point you toward two of these.
Although we live just a mile or so from downtown Nashville, it’s not more than about a 10-minute drive to Radnor Lake State Park.
When my wife and I first moved to Nashville from California, on the top of our “to do” list was find a place for some serious hiking. Radnor Lake was the first place we explored and we go back at least once a month.
We always start on the Lake Trail, which by itself takes you on a 1.4 mile, easy loop. The last time we did this loop we brought our binoculars to do some bird watching. We saw some fascinating little song birds, but when we stopped to talk to a ranger toward the end of the hike, he told us that someone had seen a bald eagle at the lake earlier that morning!
A good addition to the Lake Trail is Ganier Ridge Trail. It loops off the Lake Trail, adding 1.5 miles to your hike. You’ll find the going strenuous at times as you make your way up to the top of Ganier Ridge.
Let’s take one more hike to round out our top five Nashville trails and this time we will venture a little further out of town to Couchville Lake at Long Hunter State Park, which is off I-40 just east of the airport.
The two-mile loop around the lake is an easy walk and will probably take you about an hour to complete. It’s mostly shady and a good one to do if the weather has been bad because the trail is surfaced in asphalt.
The last time we hiked there we saw a huge flock of wild turkeys as well as some deer lurking in the forest.
These trails will get you out of the house and out into nature, but they are just a taste of the great hiking to be explored in the Nashville area.
Sources:
http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/parks/RadnorLake/
http://www.nashville.gov/parks/
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/LongHunter/index.shtml
http://www.nashville.gov/parks/locations/parks.htm
http://www.nashville.gov/parthenon/
