Between Nashville And Knoxville Is Tennessee's Rustic Mountain Region With State Parks And Outdoorsy Cities

It's hardly a secret that most folks pining after mountains in the Volunteer State will set their sights on the iconic Great Smokies — they form the backbone of the most-visited national park in the United States, after all. But there's another, more rural, slightly more off-the-beaten-track corner of Tennessee that offers its own impressive range of highland adventures, whether that's kayaking wild rivers, waterfall chasing, forest walks, or hikes to mountain-view lookouts. Its name? Upper Cumberland.

According to the official Upper Cumberland 2025 Visitors' Guide, the area comprises 14 counties, 18 communities, and a whole string of enticing state parks, as well as part of the sprawling Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. Trips to the region can start with visions of Fall Creek Falls, the highest waterfall this side of the Rocky Mountains, include big hikes through the dense forests of the Cumberland Plateau, and finish up with warming brews in cozy coffee shops or Tennessee tipples in the wine tasting rooms of one of the local towns.

Ready to get exploring? The good news is that the two big cities of Nashville and Knoxville are almost as good as each other for launching outings to Upper Cumberland. The region sits smack dab between the two, with the outdoor haven and college town of Cookeville, dubbed the "Hub of the Upper Cumberland", located a touch under 90 minutes drive to the east of Nashville, and only a touch over 90 minutes drive to the west of Knoxville. The biggest airport in the vicinity — and the state as a whole, in fact — is the Nashville International Airport (BNA), located a little over an hour's drive to the west.

Upper Cumberland could just be the perfect way to dodge the 12 million folks that hit the postcard-perfect ranges of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year. It's packed with gorges, valleys, rivers, and waterfalls, is made up mainly of rural counties, and has state parks that get just a fraction of the crowds of Tennessee's more famous mountains.

Take Rock Island State Park, where visitor numbers are in the hundreds of thousands, not the millions (according to the Tennessee Magazine). The reserve there spreads across the confluences of two rivers, hitting a zenith with a series of mighty U-shaped falls that you can either hike to or enjoy from drive-up overlooks. Then there's the Fall Creek Falls State Park, one of the largest state parks in Tennessee. Within is the highest free-falling waterfall east of the Mississippi River; 256 feet tall, and hemmed in by emerald-hued forests on all sides. You can view it from up high, but also scramble the gorge path that runs below to see the cascade trickling into its plunge pools.

While there's a stack of state parks here, outdoors lovers should also remember that Upper Cumberland also clings to a hefty portion of the 125,000-acre Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. It spills over the state line into neighboring Kentucky to the north, drawing a big circle around the most rugged corners of the Cumberland Plateau. You'll find 350 miles of marked trails inside, including highly-rated — think 4.8 out of 5 on AllTrails level of high — paths like the Twin Arches Loop Trail, a 5-miler through forests, along ridges, and up creaking wooden stairs that reveals two craggy rock arches.

Many people will start their travels through Upper Cumberland in the city of Cookeville, which serves as an urban stepping stone into the wider region. It's easy to be charmed by its downtown, an area where vintage ice cream parlors sit alongside cozy coffee joints that serve locally roasted beans and breakfast. But the pull of Mother Nature is always there, especially since Cummins Falls State Park is a mere 15 minutes' drive from town, offering up a surrounding state park that's laden with swimming holes and hiking trails.

Further west, Granville offers a taste of small-town Tennessee with one foot in the Cumberland River and a truly handsome setting amid undulating hills. A walk through the center will reveal vintage architecture, timber-clad shopfronts, and old-style porches that take you back to a lost era. The heart of the community is the T.B. Sutton General Store. It's seen two centuries come and go, and still serves up real Southern charm in the form of ice-cream floats and regular Bluegrass shows.

Then there's Rugby, a tiny town with fewer than 100 residents that actually began life as a planned utopian-farming colony. The gabled cottages and their picket-fenced lawns are the product of the architect's blending of old English and rural Appalachian styles back in the 1800s. Beyond the historic buildings, visitors can discover the Gentlemen's Swimming Hole, where the cool waters of the Clear Fork River roll through a wooded gorge.