Cumberland Trail

In the quiet woods of Tennessee, a loud-and-proud vision is at work: a 300-mile walking and hiking trail that’s closer and closer to reality every day.

The trail has been in progress since the ’60s, when the Great Smokey Hiking Club first met and discussed it as a distant thought. When completed, the vision will manifest into a 300-mile trail, spanning from its northern terminus in Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky to the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park, just outside Chattanooga.

Today, well over 200 miles of the trail have been created and connected. Trust for Public Land has proudly worked alongside the National Park Service and Tennessee State Parks to acquire portions of this corridor. One of these portions is a 19-mile segment that includes McLean Rock, where that first meeting of the Great Smokey Hiking Club took place.

This trail is growing closer to its 300-mile goal—connecting communities, habitats, and recreationists one step at a time.