Skip to content
Tennessee events › Itineraries › East Tennessee State Parks Road Trip
East Tennessee State Parks Road Trip: a 2-day plan with 5 stops, 5 of them state parks and 0 attractions, each with admission, dog rules and hours or notes copied from the official page. 5 list free entry. Each stop has a planning estimate for time on site and the road time to the next stop; drive times from four cities are in the table when the stop is in our file.
- Days2plan, then adjust
- Stops5each with a source
- State Parks5official park pages
- Free Entry5as the page states
Trip Kit
Plan It With Your People
Pick a start date, then send the plan to your group chat, put every day in your calendar, or open each day as a route in Google Maps.
Someone sent you this trip. It is set to the dates they picked.
Three historic parks in the Tri-Cities area.
Day at a glance: about 4 h 45 min at the stops plus 1 h 26 min on the road between them, 6 h 11 min in all. Leave at 9:00 a.m. and you finish around 3:11 p.m., before meals and the drive to and from where you sleep.
David Crockett Birthplace State Park
Limestone, Greene County · State parkFree Entry
- Plan about
- 1 h 15 min (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 9:00 a.m. (our estimate)
- Priority
- Essential (our pick)
- Admission
- Free: no access fee at any Tennessee state park
- Hours
- Not confirmed: the park page we read does not print day-use hours
- Dogs
- Dogs/cats/other pets permitted if leashed, crated, caged or otherwise under physical restrictive control;
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park
Elizabethton, Carter County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: birding, hiking.
- Plan about
- 1 h 30 min (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 11:04 a.m.
- Priority
- Essential (our pick)
- Admission
- Free: no access fee at any Tennessee state park
- Hours
- Not confirmed: the park page we read does not print day-use hours
- Dogs
- Dogs/cats/other pets permitted if leashed, crated, caged or otherwise under physical restrictive control;
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
About 49 min by road (28 mi) from David Crockett Birthplace State Park
Roan Mountain State Park
Roan Mountain, Carter County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: birding, camping, fishing, hiking, mountain biking.
- Plan about
- 2 h (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 1:11 p.m.
- Priority
- Essential (our pick)
- Admission
- Free: no access fee at any Tennessee state park
- Hours
- Not confirmed: the park page we read does not print day-use hours
- Dogs
- Dogs/cats/other pets permitted if leashed, crated, caged or otherwise under physical restrictive control;
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
About 37 min by road (23 mi) from Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park
A mountain park near the North Carolina line and a lakeside park in Kingsport.
Day at a glance: about 3 h 30 min at the stops plus 1 h 7 min on the road between them, 4 h 37 min in all. Leave at 9:00 a.m. and you finish around 1:37 p.m., before meals and the drive to and from where you sleep.
Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork
Flag Pond, Unicoi County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: camping, fishing, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking.
- Plan about
- 2 h (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 9:00 a.m. (our estimate)
- Priority
- Essential (our pick)
- Admission
- Free: no access fee at any Tennessee state park
- Hours
- Not confirmed: the park page we read does not print day-use hours
- Dogs
- Dogs/cats/other pets permitted if leashed, crated, caged or otherwise under physical restrictive control;
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
Warriors' Path State Park
Kingsport, Sullivan County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: biking, birding, camping, fishing, golfing, hiking, marina.
- Plan about
- 1 h 30 min (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 12:07 p.m.
- Priority
- Optional (our pick)
- Admission
- Free: no access fee at any Tennessee state park
- Hours
- Not confirmed: the park page we read does not print day-use hours
- Dogs
- Dogs/cats/other pets permitted if leashed, crated, caged or otherwise under physical restrictive control;
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
About 1 h 7 min by road (48 mi) from Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork
More Stops If You Have Time
Panther Creek State Park
Morristown, Hamblen County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: birding, boating, camping, disc golf, fishing, hiking, horseback riding.
- Plan about
- 1 h 30 min (our estimate)
- Priority
- Optional (our pick)
- Admission
- Free: no access fee at any Tennessee state park
- Hours
- Not confirmed: the park page we read does not print day-use hours
- Dogs
- Dogs/cats/other pets permitted if leashed, crated, caged or otherwise under physical restrictive control;
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
Map of East Tennessee State Parks Road Trip
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days do I need?
This plan is built for 2 days. Stops are listed in a workable order, not a promise that every one fits in your time.
How were the times worked out?
Road times between stops come from OpenStreetMap road routing with no live traffic. Time on site and the Essential or Optional label are our planning estimates, so treat the day totals as a starting point and read each operator’s hours.
Are the prices and hours current?
Each stop was read on its own official page on the date shown under it. Prices and hours change by season; use the official page link before you go.
Where are the events?
Dated events change every week, so they are not on this page. Pick your dates in the trip kit above, then open the event finder for what is on.
What We Could Not Confirm
- David Crockett Birthplace State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Sycamore Shoals State Historic ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Roan Mountain State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Lamar Alexander Rocky ForkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Warriors' Path State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Panther Creek State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Road times between stops come from OpenStreetMap road routing (OSRM), read October 30, 2026, with no live traffic, closures, ferry waits or seasonal road status; real trips can take longer, and the trip kit’s route buttons open current Google Maps directions.
- Time at each stop, the Essential or Optional label and every arrival time are our own planning estimates, not figures from the operators. Arrival times assume a 9:00 a.m. start and no meal stops. We did not check each arrival against that stop’s opening hours, so confirm hours on the official page.
- Map pins are the park’s own printed coordinates, or for an attraction a Census geocode of its street address or an OpenStreetMap point (see its place page). They are not verified entrances or parking areas; confirm the entrance on the official page before you drive.
Sources
- David Crockett Birthplace State Park (state park page)
- Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park (state park page)
- Roan Mountain State Park (state park page)
- Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork (state park page)
- Warriors' Path State Park (state park page)
- Panther Creek State Park (state park page)
- OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data
- OpenStreetMap place points
Read on October 30, 2026. Road times are computed from park GPS and OpenStreetMap points without traffic. How we check: editorial standards; spot a mistake? Tell us.
Cite this page: It's Tennessee, “East Tennessee State Parks Road Trip”, itstennessee.com/itineraries/east-tennessee-state-parks-road-trip/ (updated ). By the It's Tennessee editorial team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page; data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.