Tennessee State Parks will celebrate National Trails Day with free guided hikes at all 56 state parks tomorrow.
This will be the third of the state parks’ signature hikes this year, following First Day Hikes in January and Spring Hikes in March. Thus far, 4,787 park visitors have participated in the hikes.
The American Hiking Society designates the first Saturday in June as National Trails Day as a day of public events aimed at advocacy and trail service. Last year, 108,947 people participated in 1,203 events across 50 states.
Tennessee State Parks are offering a variety of ranger led hikes, night hikes, history hikes, nature hikes or trail clean-up hikes. With more than 1,000 miles of trails, ranging from easy paved trails to rugged backcountry trails to scenic waterways, the state parks have something for everyone.
At Cannon County’s closest state park, Edgar Evins, Children and caregivers are invited to join a party for the ribbon cutting on a new book for the ½ mile Hillside Storybook Trail. This free event will include party favors, craft making for the children sponsored by the public libraries of Cannon, DeKalb, Putnam, Smith, and the Cookeville Childrens Museum and Smithville Girl Scout Troop 3094.
Bob Tarter of Animology will present an assortment of wild animals at 11:30 A.M. The book this year will be Anybody Home? It is about Polly Possum looking for a home among the forest creatures where she can raise her expected babies.
Hotdogs, chips, lemonade and cake will be served about 12:30 P.M. The trail has large color reproductions of pages from the book on signs that are mounted at child height about every 60 yards along the trail. There will be guided and unguided hikes on the trail after the ribbon is cut .
Everything will be free unless purchased from a vendor or the on-site gift store where the book will be available.
