Great outdoor swimming near Chattanooga

July 4, 2023 3:54 PM

Family has moved to the Chattanooga area (Ringgold) and would like to do some swimming in a clean lake or river. I found a few swimming holes that you can hike into but that won’t work for us. Do you know any spots that you can drive up to, park and go to a nice beach? Family members want someone clean! Thanks!
posted by Rad_Boy to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (2 answers total)

Welcome to the neighborhood! I live in about 15-20 minutes away in the Brainerd/East Brainerd area, near the airport.

I'm more of a swimming pool girl, so I'm not sure what constitutes clean enough for lake/river people, but based on where I know people go I'd suggest you check out:

* Chickamauga Dam Reservation "Day Use Area" and it's like a mini beach, in the area under/aside 153 toward Hixson) -- there are picnic areas and it's very family-friendly all week long in the summer. The actual address is going to be either 4631 Amnicola Highway or something that says TN153.
* Harrison Bay (8109 Harrison Bay Road) has a beach & picnic area — Take 75 North to 153N to 58N; it's about half an hour with traffic. There are a lot of neighborhoods with big houses near there, not all behind gates, if you want to drive around and gawk. The sunset glinting off the bay is something I see often during the winter when I'm driving back from a particular client, and it always seems like a great place. Highway 58 leading up to the area has lots of restaurants and grocery stores where you can pick up something to eat between swims. The swimming area is small, but it's nice for keeping little ones close to you. There's Harrison Bay State Park right nearby with all sorts of good, clean, family fun.
* Chester Frost Park is super-popular. I think I'd take 75N to 153N to Hixson Pike (319) and it becomes Gold Point Circle.
* along Nickajack Lake, where the Nickajack and Chickamauga dams come together. It's more of a schlep west of Chattanooga, toward South Pittsburg.
* North Chickamauga Creek Gorge
* lots of people like to swim and go tubing in the Ocoee River (it's where a lot of the water-related events during the Atlanta Olympics were held); it's about an hour's drive, so I don't know if you'd consider that close enough. It's all between Cleveland (25 minutes from me) and Ducktown (an hour away).
* Another longer ride is Parksville Beach on Parksville Lake. It's off of U.S. 64 (Old Copper Road) on the near side of Ocoee to us.

For what it's worth, if you wanted to drive south of you and pay a teeny bit, Red Clay Resort is in Cohutta, GA, about a 20-minute drive from you. It's not a beach, but a "spring-fed" massive pool, picnic areas, and amenities like bathrooms, changing room, and a concession stand. It's privately owned but open to the public for like $8/person.

To be fair, though, I'm not an outdoorsy person, so I'd be unlikely to traipse beyond Chickamauga Dam's day use area or Harrison Bay. You might also want to look at https://www.visitchattanooga.com/things-to-do/outdoors/on-the-water/.

I hope you'll enjoy Chattanooga. I've been here (an astonishing) 25 years!
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 4:56 PM on July 4, 2023

I guided on the Ocoee back in the '80s and '90s, and to the list upstream (many fond memories of late nights on Parksville lake) I'd add tubing on the Hiwassee.
posted by straw at 9:36 PM on July 4, 2023