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Tennessee events › Itineraries › Knoxville and Oak Ridge Weekend
Knoxville and Oak Ridge Weekend: a 2-day plan with 4 stops, 1 of them state park and 3 attractions, each with admission, dog rules and hours or notes copied from the official page. 1 lists 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
- Stops4each with a source
- State Parks1official park pages
- Free Entry1as 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.
A zoo in Knoxville, then the science museum in Oak Ridge.
Day at a glance: about 4 h 30 min at the stops plus 38 min on the road between them, 5 h 8 min in all. Leave at 9:00 a.m. and you finish around 2:08 p.m., before meals and the drive to and from where you sleep.
Zoo Knoxville
Knoxville, Knox County · Attraction
Knoxville's zoo, which calls itself the Red Panda Capital of the World.
- Plan about
- 3 h (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 9:00 a.m. (our estimate)
- Priority
- Essential (our pick)
- Admission
- Adults $26.95; Children 3-12, seniors 65+ and college students $21.95
- Hours
- Open daily 9 AM to 4 PM; last tickets sold 1 hour before closing; Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
- Dogs
- Pets not allowed; service animals permitted.
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE)
Oak Ridge, Anderson County · Attraction
Museum telling the story of science and engineering in Oak Ridge since the first days of the Manhattan Project, with interactive exhibits and education programs.
- Plan about
- 1 h 30 min (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 12:38 p.m.
- Priority
- Essential (our pick)
- Admission
- Adults: "$1000" as printed (looks like a formatting error, likely $10.00; not confirmed); Youth (6-17) and Seniors 65+: "$500" as printed (likely $5.00; not confirmed)
- Hours
- Monday-Saturday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Sunday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Dogs
- Not confirmed on the page we read
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
About 38 min by road (27 mi) from Zoo Knoxville
A living-history museum and a dam park north of Knoxville.
Day at a glance: about 3 h 30 min at the stops plus 13 min on the road between them, 3 h 43 min in all. Leave at 9:00 a.m. and you finish around 12:43 p.m., before meals and the drive to and from where you sleep.
Museum of Appalachia
Clinton, Anderson County · Attraction
A non-profit living museum of Southern Appalachian life, founded by John Rice Irwin in 1969 and a Smithsonian Affiliate. It recreates an Appalachian community with log buildings and farm animals.
- Plan about
- 2 h (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 9:00 a.m. (our estimate)
- Priority
- Optional (our pick)
- Admission
- Adult (18-64): $20.00; Senior (65+): $18.00
- Hours
- January & February: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM; March – May: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Mon-Fri), 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM (Sat & Sun); Easter Sunday 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- Dogs
- Not confirmed on the page we read
Checked October 30, 2026. Official page
Norris Dam State Park
Rocky Top, Anderson County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: birding, boating, camping, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking.
- Plan about
- 1 h 30 min (our estimate)
- Arrive about
- 11:13 a.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 13 min by road (8 mi) from Museum of Appalachia
More Stops If You Have Time
Frozen Head State Park
Wartburg, Morgan County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: biking, birding, camping, fishing, hiking.
- Plan about
- 2 h (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
Big Ridge State Park
Maynardville, Union County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: birding, boating, camping, fishing, hiking, paddling, swimming.
- 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
Seven Islands State Birding Park
Kodak, Knox County · State parkFree Entry
Activities the park lists: birding, fishing, hiking.
- 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
Drive Times From Four Cities
| Stop | Nashville | Memphis | Knoxville | Chattanooga |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) | 183 min | 413 min | 38 min | 123 min |
| Museum of Appalachia | 217 min | 448 min | 35 min | 157 min |
OpenStreetMap road routing, no live traffic, read October 19, 2026. Stops without a row are not in our drive-times file. Full table: drive times to Tennessee attractions.
Map of Knoxville and Oak Ridge Weekend
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
- American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE)Dogs not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Museum of AppalachiaDogs not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Norris Dam State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Frozen Head State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Big Ridge State ParkHours not confirmed on the page we read; check the official page before you go.
- Seven Islands State Birding 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
- Zoo Knoxville (operator page)
- American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) (operator page)
- Museum of Appalachia (operator page)
- Norris Dam State Park (state park page)
- Frozen Head State Park (state park page)
- Big Ridge State Park (state park page)
- Seven Islands State Birding 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, “Knoxville and Oak Ridge Weekend”, itstennessee.com/itineraries/knoxville-and-oak-ridge-weekend/ (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.