See The Stars Like Never Before At The Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium, A Perfect Day Trip From Nashville
By Meghan Kraft|Published August 03, 2021
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Meghan Kraft
Author
Meghan Kraft loves to travel the world, but she makes her home right here in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a degree in English, and has worked in the digital marketing realm with companies such as Apartments.com, USA Today and HarperCollins Publishing.
Nashville is a great place to live your life on the day-to-day, but every once in a while you really need to get out of town. Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium is located in Kingsport, Tennessee, just a four-hour drive from Music City. The stunning area features a lake and lush forested area with hiking trails, a nature center, a planetarium, and even animal habitats. Learn more about this incredible location below, and fall in love for yourself. You may just find yourself returning again and again.
Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium is located, fittingly, on Bays Mountain in Kingsport, Tennessee. The stunning natural expanse boasts a 44-acre lake and more than 40 miles of hiking trails.
It's perhaps most famous for its planetarium, as well as its nature center and outdoor native animal displays. You'll have the chance to see everything from a bobcat to river otters and white-tail deer up close and personal!
Visitors take part in a myriad of activities including mountain biking, camping, fishing, and hiking. The Steadman Heritage Farmstead Museum is also here and outlines life as it once existed in the 19th century as a living farm museum.
Bays Mountain is also famous for being the chosen home to a pack of gray wolves. There are currently eight wolves in the pack, and the park is one of the few places that visitors can observe natural wolf behavior.
The local barge rides are perhaps the most popular for visitors, since the attraction features a pontoon boat ride for just $5 that takes visitors along the Bays Mountain Reservoir while a guide outlines the history of the natural area.
Hours at the Bays Mountain Park vary depending on the season, so make sure you check the correct times before you make the visit. At just four hours from Nashville, a visit to Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium is one you'll never forget.
What an incredible place to visit! There’s really nothing quite like this truly stunning day trip from Nashville. You can learn more about the Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium with a visit to either its Facebook page or website.
Continue to enjoy everything Tennessee has to offer with a visit to these eight state parks that are perfect for camping throughout the state.
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