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Get off the couch and start the year with a First Day Hike
By Tom Adkinson
December 9, 2022
First Day Hikes across the nation gather strangers who become New Year’s Day friends. This group hiked at Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park in East Tennessee. Image by Tennessee State Parks
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You’re probably already hatching a plan to get off the couch and exercise more in 2023, so act on that intention starting January 1. State park systems across the U.S. make it easy with a project called First Day Hikes.
These are family-friendly excursions into nature designed to burn off some holiday calories and start the new year on a natural high. State parks are logical destinations for exercise because they already are popular.
America’s State Parks, a program of the National Association of State Park Directors, reports that state and national parks receive more than 1.1 billion visits a year. Data from 2019 showed 813 million state park visits and 327 million national park visits.
Finding a First Day Hike is easy with an interactive map from America’s State Parks that identifies hiking opportunities coast to coast.
A January hiker heads out onto the Spillway Trail at Montgomery Bell State Park, about 35 miles west of Nashville. Image by Tom Adkinson
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Take Tennessee, for example. Fifty-six out of Tennessee’s 57 state parks will have a First Day Hike event, according to Brenna Sharpe, digital marketing manager for Tennessee State Parks.
The only exception is Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in downtown Nashville, which is in the thick of Nashville’s New Year’s Eve celebration that is expected to attraction more than 200,000 revelers.
First Day Hikes at Tennessee’s nature-oriented state parks will be considerably smaller. Count on excursions with a few dozen people at most. There are some novel programs planned, not all of which are on New Year’s Day.
• Radnor Lake State Park in Nashville gets an early start with a wheelchair accessible sunset hike and tour on Dec. 31. It will include a visit to the park’s aviary, where a variety of non-releasable birds are cared for.
• The fun begins with a bang at David Crockett Birthplace State Park in Limestone. A park ranger will shoot a flintlock rifle to welcome the new year and mark the start of a 1.5-mile midnight hike.
A First Day group takes a break beside a waterfall at Warriors Path State Park near Kingsport, Tennessee. Image by Marty Silver
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Kerosene lamps light the way for a midnight hike on New Years Eve at Tennessee’s Warriors Path State Park. Image by Tennessee State Parks
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• Warrior’s Path State Park in Kingsport takes midnight fun an extra step with its “Light Up the Night Hike.” Your first exercise of 2023 here will be a 2-mile hike lighted by old-fashioned kerosene lanterns. (Only adults get lanterns; children carry their own flashlights.)
• Rangers at Henry Horton State Park in Chapel Hill say they want to start 2023 “on the right paw” and have organized a dog friendly “Four-Legged Hike.” This is a hike on the park’s Wetland Trail and River Trail that the park describes as moderately difficult. (You can hike without a dog if you choose.)
• In Memphis, the chosen trail at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park is about as welcoming as you can get. It is a flat 1-mile mile trail suitable for wheelchairs and strollers. Hot chocolate and a warming fire await hikers at the halfway mark.
Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee, lives up to the “frozen” part of its name for these hikers. Image by Tennessee State Parks
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The Tennessee First Day Hikes require online registration (tickets are free, but donations to park activities are appreciated) and are part of the system’s Signature Hikes program. Other coordinated hiking events will be a set of spring hikes in March, ones on National Trails Day in June and ones on the day after Thanksgiving.
Trip-planning resources: AmericasStateParks.org, TennesseeStateParks and TNvacation.com
(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available on Amazon.com.
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