Panther Creek State Park — Attraction in Tennessee

This place is absolutely wonderful and well worth the 3 hour drive it took to get here. The entire park is clean and beautiful... Very well kept. The roads and camp site pads are all paved. The sites are spacious and clean with long picnic tables, a fire pit, and a charcoal grill. Several of the site have trees that provide some shade however a few do not. There are a handful of sites with full hookups though the park also offers a dump station behind the small camp store.

The bathhouses are the best I've ever seen. They are handicap accessible and are single person bathroom/shower combinations. They are large very clean as well.

Both bathhouses are adjacent to large pavilions with several picnic tables. The lower one has a tiny library where your can borrow books. They post the weekend activities there as well. The upper pavilion has worship services on Sundays provided by a local Baptist Church from Memorial Day through Labor Day. On the main side of the park there are several picnic tables and 2 restrooms near the overlook to the water.

There is a laundry room at the lower pavilion. I'm not sure about the upper one as I didn't venture up there.

There is so much to do here, including planned activities that are free or for a small fee. We kayaked, hiked, played on the playground, played in the creek near the trail heads, met Oliver the Owl during a nature talk, and participated in an Archery lesson (archery was $5). My kids also enjoyed hanging out in the hammocks we were able to put up on trees behind our site.

We saw several deer near the campsite and out on the water and saw and heard a lot of birds.

This place is a wonderful outdoor getaway. And the best part is that it's not far from stores and restaurants in case you forgot anything at home or didn't feel like cooking one evening. It's hard to find really awesome outdoor adventures near civilization.

We had an amazing time and will definitely be making the trip back every year.

Also, we have Verizon cell phones. The service in the upper campground was 1-2 bars but was enough to check email on my phone, watch short YouTube videos, and browse online. Other parts of the campground had no signal. The park does offer wifi free for 3 days or $3 for a...

This park is not what I expected. The overlook trail involves climbing up and then down the mountains. The trail is very well marked whuch is helpful since the trail was covered with leaves. Some part of the trail is a little narrow, but still safe. If you have stability issues, I recommend going with someone to provide you with stability, use a hiking stick, and take the trail starting on the right. I took the trail on the left and it required some uphill climbing but when I got to the other side of the trail, going down hill was a bit steep and walking on big rocks can be a bit slippery and dangerous. This might explain why the 3 solo hikers I crossed path with took the trail on the right instead of left. I love the view of the Cherokee Reservoir. Its amazing. Toward the end of the trail, about 2 mile mark, the scenery changed to more green then just brown with leaves on the green. It's nice to experience the change from brown to green as I hike the trail. I also drove to the end of the road where the overlook is without having to hike the trail. There are 2 picnic area with restrooms. If I'm in the area again, I would love to hike this trail in the Spring and Fall. I bet the Fall Foliage is beautiful! My 2 little girls enjoyed their 2.2 mile hike on the overlook trail. One of them looked so happy when she was hiking. When I was leaving the park, I encountered more deer. A group of them cross the street in front of my car. I loved it!! I spotted some on the trail and when I was leaving the park in the park by one...

We came in for one night, to find that, even though the website description claimed to have a driveway plenty long enough, the site I reserved wasn't nearly long enough to back in and stay hooked up/ We had to juggle around at an angle and almost bury the back bumper into a hill to get off the road. And the drainage was so bad (it was raining) that our entire site was an underwater mud hole. Top all this off; bright and early the next morning, a tree-cutting crew pulled in with dump truck, lift bucket truck and guys with chainsaws, who then proceeded to begin cutting a tree down less than EIGHT FEET away from our rig! They were 20 feet above our camper, cutting and dropping limbs and tree trunk, despite my tries to get them to stop long enough for us to throw stuff together and pull out of the way!

I complained to one of the park workers and all he could say was "I'll tell my boss." I won't ever visit this place and put my hundred-thousand dollar Airstream at risk if this is the way they approach safety for their visitors!

You're better off driving a few more miles and putting this state park in your rear view mirror! I'll never go back...