Where Soddy-Daisy's Outdoor Fall Moves While Blue Hole Is Being Rebuilt
Blue Hole won't be part of anyone's October this year. The Montlake Road side of North Chickamauga Creek Gorge State Park has been closed since March 23, 2026, for a project the state says will take about a year. Closer to home, the wooden Scramble Alley playground behind city hall is also set to come down.
Neither one is gone for good. The state park is getting new facilities, and the playground site is set aside for a new playground. Until that happens, the open places that work best this fall are mostly owned by the City of Soddy-Daisy. The biggest of them is a 285-acre creek gorge on Back Valley Road that the city bought in 2014.
Tennessee State Parks lists these areas as closed and off-limits for the length of the project:
The work will pave the parking area, improve the entrance, add an ADA-accessible river viewing pier and put in a restroom. Local 3 reported that Blue Hole stays closed for the whole project, though no other changes are currently planned for that specific area.
The only timeline the state gives is "approximately one year" from March 23. That puts reopening somewhere around spring 2027, but no firm date has been announced.
The Barker Pounds and Flipper Bend trailheads are still open. You can't reach any of the closed areas from either one. Parking is limited at both, the terrain is rough, and the park asks visitors to carpool and never park along the roadside. The same notice says anyone who tries to get around the closure could face legal action. For a creek-and-waterfall morning, the reliable choice this fall is across town.
Big Soddy Creek Gulf sits at 11721 Back Valley Road. The city describes it as 285 acres with hiking trails, gorge views, waterfalls and rock formations along Big Soddy Creek. When the city bought the land, it promised to keep it in pristine condition. It's open every day from sunrise to sunset, and entry and parking at the trailhead are free.
The trail system is small, and each trail does a different job:
| Trail | Length | City's description | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Adams' Trail | 1.2 miles | Easy, mainly flat and wide | Main walk through the Gulf |
| Board Camp Creek Trail | 0.2 mile | Moderate, some steep slopes and rocky ground | Ends at the Cumberland Trail |
| Miner's Trail | 0.5 mile | Moderate, some steep slopes and rocky ground | Spur within the Gulf |
Jim Adams' Trail is the one to pick for a stroller, a slow dog or a visiting grandparent. The other two need sturdy shoes, and the city warns that both are steep and rocky.
A few house rules are easy to miss before a first visit:
The city's own list of hazards includes poison ivy, snakes, bears, coyotes, flash flooding and falling boulders. It's a short drive from Dayton Pike, but it's still wild land.
Board Camp Creek Trail is only 0.2 mile long, but it connects the Gulf to the Cumberland Trail. That connection gives people with a free Saturday a lot more ground to cover than the closed North Chickamauga segment did. The Cumberland Trail Conference lists three nearby sections:
The Little Soddy trailhead at 913 Sluder Lane connects the two Soddy Creek Gorge sections. The city lists it as a Cumberland Trail access point that sits outside city limits and isn't maintained by the city. Parking is at Hotwater Road and Sluder Lane, and the trailhead is about 200 feet back down Hotwater Road.
None of these sections are on the state's North Chickamauga closure list. The conference's pages don't post live trail conditions, though, so check before you head out on a long hike.
Volunteers built Scramble Alley in 1995. At the commission meeting in September, many of those same volunteers agreed the wooden structure can't be saved. Most of the support posts have rotted, and replacing them would mean taking the rest apart. Commissioner Steve Everett said that once old boards start getting replaced, the boards next to them would need replacing too, until all of them were new.
The commission was clear about what happens next. The land behind city hall will be used for nothing but another playground. City Manager Burt Johnson got early estimates from Game Time for a small playground, ranging from $300,000 to $500,000. He suggested applying for Tennessee's 50/50 Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant, which would leave the city paying around $150,000. To qualify, the city first needs a current parks master plan, so that plan comes before the grant application. Vice Mayor Mark Penney said he'd like the new playground to be unique to Soddy-Daisy rather than generic.
The old structure will come down whenever the public works department has the crew and trucks free. No date has been set. In the meantime, Commissioner Everett pointed to the city's other playgrounds at the north and south ends of town, plus the school playgrounds that are open to the public.
Not every outing needs a gorge. The Soddy Lake Recreation Complex has a walking track, basketball and pickleball courts, a playground and creek fishing. Soddy Lake, just across Dayton Pike, has a public fishing pier, picnic areas and seasonal birding. In early September, the city manager reported that about 100 parking spaces had been added by the baseball fields near the Soddy Lake Firehall.
Veterans Park at 9009 Dayton Pike has a large walking track and a dog park, along with ballfields and courts. Commissioners are also looking at a proposal to let two separate events book the same large park at once, instead of one reservation tying up the whole property.
Most of the month's fixed dates are in town too:
The city's parks directory lists Holly Park at 11606 Holly Circle with a double-wide boat ramp, trailer parking, picnic tables and restrooms. The new dock, wider ramp and pavilion in a September 2025 county release were described there as proposed upgrades, so don't count on them being finished this fall. The state also warns that creek areas can close on short notice when water rises, so check its creek-status information on the morning you go.
If you're trading Blue Hole for the Gulf this fall and wondering how Soddy-Daisy's parks and trails might shape where your household lands next, Ricky Streeter is glad to talk it through, trailhead to trailhead. Let's Connect.
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