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 Byrd Lake, Cumberland Plateau, and Byrd Creek Trails
This pleasant, easy walk swings around Byrd Lake, passes over the park’s old stone dam, and follows Byrd Creek below the dam into a luxuriant forest of hemlock and rhododendron. This is the best route for viewing the dam, the largest steel-free masonry structure undertaken by the CCC.
From the guidebook "40 Hikes In Tennessee's South Cumberland"
Crossville, TN - Hiking - 4 miles
Cumberland Trail (Grassy Cove Section)
From the Black Mountain state-registered natural area, where massive rock formations create a maze of passages, the Cumberland Trail follows the ridgeline of Black Mountain and Brady Mountain for distant views of Grassy Cove. You may camp along the trail, but no campfires are allowed. In 1968 a group of hikers and conservationists organized the Tennessee Trails Association (TTA) and proposed a trans-Tennessee trail that would pass north to south through the state, following the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau. At first, the Tennessee General Assembly supported the idea by establishing the Cumberland Trail, a state scenic trail that would have run 200 miles from Cumberland Gap National Historical Park on the Kentucky border to Chattanooga near the Georgia–Alabama border. For a time, the state of Tennessee abandoned the trail for lack of funds. In the late 1990s the TTA organized a Cumberland Trail Conference with the mission of reopening the Cumberland Trail. The conference was so successful in organizing public support and getting volunteers to work on the trail that in 1998 the state established a new Cumberland Trail State Park. Segments of the trail are under construction by volunteers. At this writing this Grassy Cove section and a section at Prentice Cooper to the south are the only segments on the South Cumberland. Eventually, the trail will connect these segments.
From the guidebook "40 Hikes In Tennessee's South Cumberland"
Rockwood, TN - Hiking - 11.7 miles
Ozone Falls State Natural Area
At the end of this short trail is a narrow 110-foot column of water falling from a rock overhang. The amphitheater behind the waterfall is typical of waterfalls on the Cumberland Plateau, where below the erosion-resistant sandstone lip of the falls, the softer sandstone and shale layers erode more quickly, opening up the rock wall behind the fall of water.
From the guidebook "40 Hikes In Tennessee's South Cumberland"
Rockwood, TN - Hiking - 0.5 miles
Pioneer Short Loop - Pioneer Trail
This level trail crosses a small footbridge and circles Byrd Lake along the shore, following one of its feeder streams before crossing it and returning along the other side of the lake.
From the guidebook "Hiking Tennessee"
Crossville, TN - Hiking - 5 miles
Pioneer Short Loop / Pioneer Trail
While circling Byrd Lake, this laurel- and rhododendron-lined loop crosses the lake’s numerous contributing streams. The Pioneer Short Loop provides a shorter walk than the longer loop of the Pioneer Trail.
From the guidebook "40 Hikes In Tennessee's South Cumberland"
Crossville, TN - Hiking - 5 miles
Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness
This is one of the most interesting trails on the South Cumberland, with overlooks and waterfalls, including the dramatic 110-foot Virgin Falls. Here a robust stream emerges from a cave and crashes over a cliff into a pit, sending spray up the hillside before it disappears into the earth. Camping is available beside the Caney Fork River.
From the guidebook "40 Hikes In Tennessee's South Cumberland"
DeRossett, TN - Hiking - 8 miles
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