The best-known trailhead in Soddy-Daisy is closed for this whole fall and into early 2027. The trail itself stays open. Its 30-plus miles of protected route now start at the trailhead on Mowbray Pike, on the same mountain as 3 Gorges, and that end of the Cumberland Trail has been there all along.
What closed at North Chick, and for how long
Tennessee State Parks began an improvement project at North Chickamauga Creek Gorge State Park on March 23, 2026, and expects it to last about a year. These areas are closed until it's done:
- The Montlake Road entrance and the main trailhead
- The Blue Hole Trail and Blue Hole access
- Hogskin Loop Trail
- Stripmine Falls
- The Cumberland Trail from the main trailhead to Boston Branch Overlook
Crews are paving the parking area, upgrading the entrance, building an ADA-accessible pier for viewing the river, and adding a restroom. The Times Free Press has reported it as a $5.5 million capital project. Local 3 reported that construction should wrap up in early 2027. The station also reported that people who try to reach Blue Hole while the main lot is closed may face charges.
The state says outright that you can't get to the swimming hole a back way. Blue Hole is about a mile from the parking area, and with steep, rugged terrain on both sides of the gorge, the state says "there is no safe way to provide access during the project." Park Manager Sarah Geeslin described the tradeoff in the state's announcement:
"While construction will temporarily limit parking and require the closure of the Blue Hole, these upgrades will create a safer, more accessible experience for visitors in the future."
The state's suggestion for when parking fills is to visit nearby state parks, and Cumberland Trail State Park is first on its list. For anyone living on Mowbray Mountain, the closest part of that park starts at the Mowbray Pike trailhead.
The trail is already routed toward Mowbray Pike
The Cumberland Trail Conservancy's own guide to the North Chickamauga section says the trail is meant to head this way. Current plans call for the Cumberland Trail to turn northeast at an old strip-mine bench above the creek and connect "with an existing trailhead on Mowbray Pike that is the southern terminus of the Three Gorges Segment." The connector hasn't been built and its exact route isn't set. For now, thru-hikers walk 3.2 miles of road on Poe Road, Montlake Road and Mowbray Pike to get from one section to the next. When the new route is finished, the Conservancy says, the trail back to the Montlake Road trailhead will become a side trail.
So when the Montlake Road entrance closed, the trail's long-term layout stayed the same. The closure only cut off the stretch that was always going to become a spur. The main line continues north from Mowbray Pike through three creek gorges that give the segment, and this community, its name. The Conservancy's Possum Creek guide puts the contiguous segment at 30.7 miles.
How these gorges came to be protected
The Soddy, Possum and Rock Creek gorges were bought for conservation. The Conservancy says it raised and contributed $1.7 million toward buying all three. By 2007 it had spent four years building trail in those watersheds, and volunteers from Tennessee and many other states had put in 50,000 hours of labor.
In early 2007, the Conservancy found out that rock harvesting was badly damaging or destroying trail near Deep Creek, a tributary of Soddy Creek. The company doing it held mineral rights under land that had become state property. Fifteen groups signed onto a 2008 brief in the case, among them the Southern Environmental Law Center, The Land Trust for Tennessee and the Tennessee River Gorge Trust. The case settled in 2009, and the state acquired the mineral rights to the Soddy Creek tract along with the company's interest in rock extraction in the North Chickamauga Natural Area. That same year, then-Governor Phil Bredesen backed legislation that effectively ended rock mining on public lands by companies that hold only the mineral rights.
That's why the stretch north of Mowbray Pike is still trail. A conservation community named for these gorges sits next to land that a lawsuit and a state law kept from being quarried.
Matching a section to the time you have
Each section of the Three Gorges Segment runs between two trailheads, so most day hikes are either an out-and-back or a shuttle with a second car. Distances and difficulty below come from the Conservancy's section guides.
| Section | Trailheads | Distance | Difficulty | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soddy Creek Gorge South | Mowbray Pike to Little Soddy/Hotwater Road | 4.9 miles | Moderate | Mikel Branch waterfall, escarpment views, historic coal-mining remnants |
| Soddy Creek Gorge North | Little Soddy to Heiss Mountain Road | 12.1 miles | Strenuous | 100-foot suspension bridge over Big Soddy Creek |
| Possum Creek Gorge | Heiss Mountain Road to Retro-Hughes Road | 9.5 miles | Moderate | Overlooks, waterfalls, rapids, rock formations |
| Rock Creek Gorge | Retro-Hughes Road to Upper Leggett Road | 5.4 miles | Strenuous | 80-foot bridge, cascades, gorge overlooks |
The Mowbray Pike section is the southern start of the segment. The Conservancy's directions from Chattanooga take US 27 north to Daisy, then run Sequoyah Road to Dayton Pike to Mountain Road, which turns into Mowbray Pike, and the trailhead is on the right 1.8 miles up. The section climbs and drops about 450 feet over 4.9 miles, and the guide lists high bluffs as its main caution. Plan for water before you go. Camping isn't allowed on this stretch, and because the area was heavily mined, the Conservancy says the creeks carry mine runoff and hikers should bring their own water.
The first waterfall comes early. At mile 0.4, the trail crosses Mikel Branch on a footbridge, and just downstream the creek drops over a waterfall before the trail winds into a boulder field. At the north end, the route passes the remains of what the Conservancy calls one of the oldest tunnel coal-mining operations in Tennessee. If you'd rather start from that end, park on the gravel at Sluder Lane and Hotwater Road and walk about 200 feet back down Hotwater Road to the trailhead. Volunteers built the access trail from Sluder Lane during the Conservancy's first "Big Dig" in 2003, and University of Kansas students finished it as a loop during Winter BreakAway 2012.
The suspension bridge on the north section has been in place since November 2015, when it replaced the temporary crossings on Deep Creek and Big Soddy Creek. Local hiking groups use these sections. The Tennessee Trails Association's Scenic City Chapter hiked out and back to the bridge on September 22, 2026, about 3.5 to 4 miles round trip, and walked the full 9.5-mile Possum Creek section four days later.
Shorter outings, and the North Chick entrances still open
Big Soddy Creek Gulf is the shortest way down to the same creek system. The City of Soddy-Daisy manages these 285 acres at 11721 Back Valley Road, with three marked trails: Jim Adams' Trail at 1.2 miles, Board Camp Creek Trail at 0.2 miles and Miner's Trail at 0.5 miles. Board Camp Creek Trail connects to the Cumberland Trail, so a short Gulf walk can turn into a longer one. Local Eagle Scouts installed numbered, color-coded waypoints on each trail, and dispatchers have GPS coordinates for every marker in case of an emergency.
The Gulf is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Entry and trailhead parking are free, there are portable toilets but no drinking water on the trail, and dogs must stay leashed. The city lists Board Camp Creek and Miner's trails as steep and rocky. The city bought the property in 2014 and promised to keep it in its natural condition.
If you'd still rather hike at North Chickamauga, two of its entrances are open. TDEC has said Flipper Bend and Barker Camp would stay open during construction with limited parking, and it encourages carpooling. Flipper Bend Trailhead is at 8290 Hixson Springs Road and is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The 1.4-mile Clear Branch Loop is reached by the 2.30-mile Flipper Bend Access Trail, which makes the full outing about 6.35 miles. To get to Barker Camp, you take Poe, Grant and Barker Camp roads, and the last 0.7 mile is gravel. From there, the Cumberland Trail heads to Stevenson Branch Falls and its plunge pool and to the 175-foot spur out to Panther Branch Overlook. Expect creek fords at Cooper Creek and Panther Branch with no bridges.
The Montlake Road entrance is expected to reopen in early 2027 with new paving, a restroom and its river pier. Until then, the Cumberland Trail's open route north starts at the Mowbray Pike trailhead, the southern end of the Three Gorges Segment.
Being close to protected trail land like the Three Gorges Segment belongs in any honest look at a Mowbray Mountain home, and a good listing description should explain it. If you own in 3 Gorges or nearby and want to know how that access factors into your home's value today, Grace Frank Group can walk you through it. Request a Home Valuation to get started.
