John Shearer: Exploring And Searching For Greenways, Part 28 – Enjoying First Visit To Harrison Bay State Park

Since I began this series around early 2020 examining various parks and even undeveloped spaces within Hamilton County that could still be preserved, I realized as a multi-decade resident how many places I had never visited.

 

And that is despite the fact my newspaper work over the years has required going down a few side roads to interview people or cover stories.

 

Well, I realized Harrison Bay State Park, which I visited Saturday, is another preserved space this lover of trees and publicly accessibly green spaces had never seen, either, unless it was a brief visit when I was too young to remember.

 

But I was glad to go last Saturday and found it interesting and pretty and a good place to visit multiple times.

 

I had arrived at the park off Highway 58 about mid-morning after about a 20-minute drive from my Northgate Mall area home.

It is located a few miles beyond Booker T. Washington State Park, which I visited last year. If you are heading north, you turn left right after you start seeing the lake water a few hundred yards beyond the large Bayside Baptist Church.

 

Once on Harrison Bay Road, I noticed some nice and grass-covered pull-off areas along the shore, where people can fish or just enjoy the pretty views of the water. 

 

A few yards later, I found myself in the park grounds, where you can soon veer left or right. I was not sure which way to go in this moment that seemed out of a Robert Frost poem, so I went to the right. After passing a trailhead also on my right and a ranger home that hints of a mid-century look on the left, I soon found a big parking lot where it looked like a swimming pool complex and other recreational facilities were. 

 

I went over and examined some tennis courts on the fringe of this area and realized we have probably elected two or three presidents since they were last used much. I have seen that same situation at other parks I have examined, and realize tennis is maybe not quite as popular overall locally as it was during the tennis boom of four or five decades ago, despite the nice Champions Club and some sleek new courts put in at Hixson High School.

 

Since I saw an adequately large grassy area between the swimming pool and the water’s edge, and I like to jog on grass instead of asphalt or concrete, I figured I would come back here last when I could take a planned jog to end my visit.

 

So, I got back on the road and continued exploring. I went past the interesting A-frame building apparently used by overnight campers for checking in and other services. It had a mid-century look written all over it, and it reminded me of summer travel when I was a child in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

 

Quite a few recreational vehicle campers were around as people were taking advantage of this park that I surprisingly realized opened as Tennessee’s first state park in 1937. I would have guessed some state natural treasure like Fall Creek Falls or Reelfoot Lake would have been the first, but I understand Harrison Bay was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps about the time the TVA dam system was being developed.

 

Booker T. Washington State Park, which was initially opened for black citizens in the days of segregation, was constructed not too long afterward.

 

This Harrison Bay park road that went past the camp sites ended up by some simply lovely picnic table spots facing the lake on one of the park’s points. While I know Chester Frost Park has some nice picnic places along the lake, these were especially nice – and I was sorry I did not have a ham sandwich and some homemade cookies to plop down on one of the tables.

 

If there is one feature Harrison Bay State Park has besides plenty of trees, it is the large collection of picnic tables. I found seemingly more types of picnic tables than you can find in a picnic table catalog. Some featured wood that was starting to wear, but most seemed nice and were placed at good and peaceful locations.

 

I then went back up to the front entrance of the park and down the other road, the one that went to the left. After driving down some small side road where I saw a couple of deer, I then went and looked at all the interesting boats lined up near the main road. Some were sailboats, some were houseboats and some were others, but they were all pretty to see.

 

They were lined up next to the nice marina building that had probably a visitors center and restaurant. A number of fishing and excursion boats had already been launched by the building that morning, based on all the vehicles with trailers parked in the large parking lot.

 

Although I did not go on it, I understand a fun trail – the Bay Point Loop Trail – can be accessed here, and a hiker and even mountain biker can enjoy views of the water while exercising.

 

About this time, I had deduced that Harrison Bay State Park probably draws quite a few users with different hobbies, interests and maybe even outlooks. Boaters, canoers, hikers, campers, fishermen and, yes, maybe even an occasional tennis player can all enjoy this park through one of these activities without having the least bit of interest in taking part in another hobby. Of course, they all share a universal interest in enjoying the outdoors.

 

Although I did not go up to it, the praised Jack Nicklaus-designed Bear Trace golf course, located on the north end of the park beyond where I was, has drawn yet another kind of sports enthusiast since it opened in 1999.

 

After leaving the marina area – where I saw a mallard duck jump in the water – I drove back to the park entrance, where there is a neat open field with a few blooming wildflowers. It is called Star Walk, and it features a large mowed circular path with side trails for people to enjoy walking. Patterned after a place in Australia, according to one sign, it is also set up for visitors to enjoy the stars at night. I liked it – especially as a grassy place where I could go jogging – and would like to go back during the day or night.

 

I then went back to the area around the swimming pool and took a jog, after briefly seeing a neat open space with a picnic pavilion just beyond the tennis courts and after taking some pictures of the waterfront over near the swimming pool and beach volleyball courts. 

 

From the edge of the water here, you can see a far horizon, including of handsome Signal Mountain/Waldens Ridge way off in the distance. At almost every park greenway space I have visited in Chattanooga for this series, Signal Mountain or Lookout Mountain seems visible.

 

The pool, which also includes a baby pool, was not ready for use yet, and I am not sure what the plans are with the waning pandemic, etc. It seems like I had heard that either it or the one at Booker T. Washington is one of the larger public pools in the Chattanooga area.

 

Also during my jog and previous picture-taking walkaround in this area near the pool, I saw a small covered stage area called Friends Fort Porch, which was evidently part of the Friends of Harrison Bay State Park and dedicated to the memory of Larry and Judy Speer. It also had some benches in front of it. 

 

That was nice, and I am glad to know a group like Friends of Harrison Bay State Park exists. Keep up the good work!

 

I also saw nearby a shuffleboard court and some horseshoe pits. What is a park without those two important recreational amenities!

 

I also saw in this area a small and almost makeshift backstop and a partially covered sandy infield that were apparently part of a simple baseball or softball field for park users. I loved that, too!

 

I then left the park, but as I did, I stopped and walked down the short trail just beyond the swimming pool park parking lot. It was only a couple of hundred yards down a trail and over some rocks jutting up, so I called it Rocky Road. The view of the water was great at the bottom, and being in the shade of the woods offered a cooler effect than when I was out in the sun on this day where the temperatures were slightly rising.

 

I then stopped by and looked at the beautiful red-tailed hawk and not-quite-so-glamorous turkey vulture in screened enclosures before heading out.

 

The Maddox Cemetery was north of where I was, but below the golf course, and I did not go up there, either, since I needed to get back home. But I am sure it is a nice area and similar to the rest of the park. At least I hope I did not miss any special park attractions I needed to see!

 

This park – which in a lot of ways looks like a bigger version of Booker T. Washington State Park – certainly met my approval. It not only had plenty of woods and nice shoreline spots, which I obviously expected, but the three or four open grass fields were also pleasant surprises.

 

If I lived within 10 minutes of the park, I would definitely make it one of my regular jogging locations.

 

And who knows, maybe I will come back again soon anyway!

 

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To see the previous story in this series, read here.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2021/4/24/427209/John-Shearer-Exploring-And-Searching.aspx

 

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net