Why we love it: It's an opportunity for time travel.
Closest town: Elizabethton, Tenn.
Drive time from Chattanooga: 3 1/2 hours
Featuring only 2.3 miles of trails, this state park is a bit of a departure from our norm here at Get Out. But in honor of our country's birthday, it's one we couldn't pass up. You'll still be surrounded by the gentle wave of the Appalachians, including the Cherokee National Forest and Watauga Lake, should you need some more adventure, but there's plenty to keep your interest at Sycamore Shoals.
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Lady Liberty
Celebrate the Fourth with a bang - circa 1772. The democratic form of government established here, the first settlement outside the 13 colonies, predates the Declaration of Independence and, ultimately, America's switch from a monarch to a republic.
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Home of History
The state's oldest frame house still in existence stands here. The Carter Mansion was built by John Carter and his son Landon, both prominent military men and leaders within their community as well, and theirs is one of the most significant historic homes in Tennessee. Surrounding Carter County pays homage to Landon through its name, and nearby Elizabethton was named for his wife.
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Battle Cry
The settlement's role in America's road to independence didn't end at the ballot box. Sycamore Shoals played a big role in the American Revolution as well. Using Sycamore Shoals as their muster site, the Overmountain Men - a band of rebels including other namesakes such as Isaac Shelby, John Sevier and William Campbell - killed British Maj. Patrick Ferguson in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, then commander of the British forces in North America, later wrote that the battle was the "first Link of a Chain of Evils that followed each other in regular Succession until they at last ended in the total loss of America."
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Brought to Life
Liberty! The Saga of Sycamore Shoals brings these tales to the stage each July. Just a little farther afield, Fort Watauga squats on the site where it was built in 1776 to protect the settlers from the Cherokee, now serving as a backdrop for those in the park's 240-seat amphitheater.
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Transylvania Purchase
The continent's largest private real estate transaction took place at Sycamore Shoals in 1775, ceding 20 million acres - half the size of present-day Kentucky - of Cherokee land to speculator Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Company. (Hence the need for Fort Watauga.) Henderson then hired Daniel Boone to open it up to the rest of the colonies by establishing the Wilderness Road which, though treacherous, became the principal route to Kentucky for more than a quarter of a century, and which many modern highways still follow.