North Chickamauga Creek

For the second day of my Tennessee swimming hole/waterfall marathon, I went to North Chickamauga Creek (hereafter, North Chick) in the town of Soddy-Daisy near Chattanooga. North Chick features the Blue Hole (the most overused swimming hole name ever) and other assorted pools of clear, blue water. This hike featured no waterfalls, but I was mainly interested in this creek because it had clear blue water and multiple opportunities to jump from giant boulders. I guess you could say I was hoping it would basically be the South Yuba River of the east coast, although North Chick has been on my radar since before I even knew the Yuba River existed, so it’s safe to say I was also interested in North Chick for its own sake as well. My brother Brian and his girlfriend Chelsea accompanied me for this trip. My parents were not interested since this hike did not include a waterfall, and since the region is under an excessive heat warning (all the more reason to go swimming), so they went to see Twin Falls at Rock Island State Park since they didn’t get to go there with me yesterday.

I headed out with Brian and Chelsea shortly after 11 AM. The drive took us down off the plateau we were on, through a valley between two plateaus, and back up and down the other side of a second plateau. It was almost like the western U.S. where you have flat valleys between two mountain ranges, except a lot greener. We stopped at a Dollar General randomly plopped down in the middle of the farmlands so Chelsea could buy some goggles. She bought three different pairs, including the "cool" goggles, which were shaded like sunglasses.

We arrived at the parking area a little before 2 PM (we went forward an hour since we drove from central to eastern time). I was worried that the parking area would be full even though it was a Monday, but there were a few spaces available.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I was pleased with the swimming holes we found at North Chick today. I was hoping that it would be like the Yuba River of the east, and it kind of was, although I would say it most closely resembles a larger, warmer Devil’s Fork with boulder-jumping opportunities, and that sounds pretty great to me. The immediate area doesn’t have any especially spectacular scenery aside from the creek itself, but it makes up for that with good swimming hole functionality (large pools, comfortable water temperature, jumping opportunities, snorkeling). I would definitely come back here if I were in the Chattanooga area again.