Reelfoot Lake State Park

Reelfoot Lake State Park is 3 hours from Nashville, and if that's making you pause- DO NOT PAUSE. GO. It's that amazing. It's the closest to a Louisiana swamp as your going to get in Nashville. It's absolutely gorgeous.

The lake was formed as an offshoot from the Mississippi River after a series of earthquakes in the early 1800s. It is a flooded forest with cypress trees reaching out of the water. It has fishing, boating, a museum, a gift shop, a nature center, picnic pavilions, playgrounds, boating, two campgrounds, and seven hiking trails- the Airpark Trail (1.25 miles loop), the Black Bayou Trail (.7 mile), the Boardwalk (.45 mile loop), the Brough Slough Trail (.3 mile), the Deep Swamp Trail (3.6 miles loop), the Keystone Trail (.6 mile), and the Walking Loop Trail (.4 mile). It has a youth ninja course, and an aviary that has AMERICAN BALD EAGLES, which I've never seen before in person. Surrounding the park, there were boat tours of the lake you could sign up for, personal guided tours of the park, and gift shops with recovered cypress bark and roots for sale.