cumberland trail, prentice cooper state forest

Must see, great for a family day out or a home with you sweetheart or when you just need some alone time. Beautiful clean area to hike.

We loved this area for hiking. We visited Snooper's Rock. The overlook is amazing. There are several trails, but no visitor's center, so bring a map with you. The trails were pretty well maintained. We did run across a large fallen tree over the trail, not far from Snooper's Rock heading toward the Natural Bridge. Easy enough for a normal person to get under, but my husband was carrying out toddler in a backpack. The trail was not flat, but very pretty. We hope to return and hike more of the area.

My review is for the camping in Prentice-Cooper - there are two campsites - one, at Davis Pond, is really small, and we ended up leaving as people were going to be camping on top of each other. The second was more spread out so was much better, however, it's right next to the shooting area/range, so don't be surprised to be woken up by the sound of gunfire at the crack of dawn. Also, you can hear a good bit of road traffic, and there are tons of dogs barking all night as there are houses nearby. So, not terrible if you want to be right outside Chattanooga, however, not exactly the peace and quiet you might expect while camping. We had to run white noise off an iphone while we were sleeping to try to block out some of the noise.

The part of the CT that we hiked was very hilly. The terrain was constantly either going up or down. Very little of the 5 miles we hiked to the camp site was level. The camp site was well defined and primitive. Pretty good local area hike.

Just an amazing view of the gorge. Best view I have seen in this area and is not well known to most visitors. Long gravel road to get there but well worth it.

-- Easy to get to from Chattanooga, only about a half hour away-- Hiked from the parking lot near Indian Rock House and hiked along the ridge out to Snooper's Rock (then turned around and walked back-- around six miles, took a little more than two hours round trip)--Trial is clearly marked, in good condition, and goes along a ridge giving partial lookouts over the TN River, until you get to SR, where the view is amazing--No real visitor's center from what I could tell, just a locked shed. Didn't have any maps available, so it helps to check out the trail maps online before you go--All in all, a great day hike, and there are many other routes you can take

We've been here a few times. We don't have the proper vehicle for the trails. If we did I would like it more. The toilets (if you can call them that) are horrible!

Nice trails, need to make locating maps easier. I would go back if I had access to maps.

The Cumberland Trail has many great trails and overlooks. The total length is about 32 miles plus loops. Two very easy overlooks to access for non-hikers are Signal Point (right in the town of Signal Mountain just a few steps from the parking lot) and Snoopers Rock (also a short distance from parking). We did the hike from Snoopers Rock to Indian Rock House, just about three miles. It was a great hike though a bit tiring for our less experienced hikers, but if my 70 year old mom can make it anyone can! And the views were so worth it.