Rock Island State Park

Rock Island State Park is in Rock Island, Tennessee, approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes from my home in Bellevue. The property became a part of the community with the industries that came in the 1880s. However, a flood destroyed the business by the end of the 1890s and the area was deserted for about a decade until another power company set up in the area in 1905. It was sold to the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1939, who owns it today. The park was founded in 1969.

This 833 acre park is the home to the Caney Fork, the Collins River, the Great Falls Dam, the Great Falls Gorge, the Great Falls Cotton Mill, and the Spring Castle. It has ten cabins, boating, fishing, two campgrounds, a beach, picnic areas, a gift shop, a visitor's center, and ten hiking trails- the Blue Hole Trial (.15 mile), the Bluff Trial (1.95 mile loop), the Cemetery Trail (.15 mile), the Collins River Nature Trial (2.65 mile loop), the Downstream Trail (1.55 mile loop), the Eagle Trail (.75 mile), the Moonshine Trial (.35 mile), the Old Mill Gorge Trail (.1 mile), the Overflow Trial (.3 mile), and the Upstream Trial (.2 mile).

This park is insanely popular- we had to drive around in a circle multiple times to be able to wait for a parking spot to open up. But the views of the waterfalls were so worth it!