Why this park
This is a small park on a long river. Its own ground near Delano comes to less than a hundred acres, but it takes in 23 miles of the Hiwassee, from the North Carolina line to the US 411 bridge. National forest and private land line most of those miles, so on most visits the river is the park.
What makes the place worth drawing is the riverbed. The Hiwassee runs wide and clear over rock ledges and around islands, and herons fish among the stones. In cracks in its boulders, and in the Ocoee's, grows Ruth's golden aster, an endangered plant found nowhere else. By the boat ramp at Gee Creek, the park's draft management plan says, lies a Native American fish weir about 2,000 years old.
The story
The park's plan says the Hiwassee was home to the Cherokee. A treaty in 1819 opened the land north of the river to white settlement, the Tennessee Encyclopedia says, and the removal treaty of 1835 took the last Cherokee land in Tennessee.
Fort Marr, whose last blockhouse stands by the park's visitor center, was built in 1814 at Old Fort, near the Conasauga River, to supply Tennessee troops in Andrew Jackson's war on the Creeks. By May 1838 it was Fort Morrow, held by three companies under Captain John Morrow, and its troops were sent to round up Cherokee people in the mountains and take them to Fort Cass, downstream at present-day Charleston. There, that summer, camps held the Cherokee taken from their homes until they were forced west on the Trail of Tears.
The blockhouse outlasted the fort. The Polk County Historical Society's timeline has it on a farm as a smokehouse, at Benton's high school from 1922 and beside the old jail from 1965. The state took it over in 1977 and proposed moving it to the park in 2011, and it stands there now.
In 1941 the Tennessee Valley Authority began Apalachia Dam, just over the line in North Carolina, in the rush for power as war approached. Since 1943 an 8.3-mile tunnel has carried the river's water to a powerhouse near Reliance, leaving 13 miles of the river with little water. Below it, the Hiwassee rises and falls with what TVA sends through the turbines.
On April 4, 1968, Tennessee named about 23 miles of the Hiwassee a scenic river, one of ten in its new program and, the park's page says, the first the state managed. The park followed in 1972. From 1984, the Ocoee River State Park's page says, the two rivers were run as one park, until the state split them in 2025.
When to go, and what to wear
Summer is the river's season. The park says TVA's releases bring Class II rapids through the summer, and the Forest Service counts about 5 miles of Class I to III water below the powerhouse. Go on a weekday for a quieter river. In nearby Cleveland, July averages a high near 89°F and a low near 68°F, but the river can run much colder than the air, and the National Weather Service says to dress for the water, not the air. Wear a life jacket, quick-drying layers rather than cotton, a hat, and shoes that strap on and grip wet rock.
Spring and fall suit the trails and the trout. At the Cleveland station, March is the wettest month, with about 5.6 inches of rain, and April averages a high near 72°F and a low near 47°F. Trillium and bluebells bloom in spring, and TWRA stocks trout from October through July. October is the driest month, with about 3.5 inches, highs near 73°F and lows near 48°F: good weather for the John Muir Trail, upriver in the national forest. Bring a rain shell in spring and a fleece for fall mornings.
Winter is quiet. January averages a high near 50°F and a low near 29°F, and bald eagles turn up more often now, the park says. Far downstream near Birchwood, outside the park, TWRA's Hiwassee Refuge draws thousands of sandhill cranes each winter, and TWRA's crane festival comes each January. Wear layers, a warm hat and gloves.
Know before you go
- Coast Guard-approved life jackets are required on the river, and glass, aluminum and plastic foam are not allowed. TVA's releases can raise the water fast, so check TVA's predicted releases for Apalachia before you put in.
- Gee Creek Campground, primitive and without hookups, closes for renovation in early spring 2027 and is expected to reopen in summer 2028.
- From the Apalachia powerhouse to the L&N Railroad Bridge, TWRA's 2026 rules make trout catch-and-release, artificial lures only, from October 1 through February 28; from March 1 through September 30 the limit is seven, no more than two of them brown trout. Fishing for trout takes TWRA's trout supplement unless your license already covers trout, and the park says to wade fish only at low flow.
- The river passes private land, and the park says to get permission before going ashore. Bears and venomous snakes live here. Leave the weir's stones and the golden asters alone: the park forbids moving the weir, and state law protects the plant.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Hiwassee Scenic River State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Hiwassee Scenic River State Park Strategic Management Plan (draft, 2026) and Tennessee Scenic Rivers Program, "Hiwassee River"; Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Hiwassee River State Park and Ocoee Recreational River" (Carroll Van West) and "Polk County" (Marian Bailey Presswood); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ruth's Golden Aster 5-Year Status Review (2023); Paul Leach, "Parks officials outline relocation of blockhouse," Chattanooga Times Free Press (2011); Tennessee America 250, "Fort Marr Blockhouse"; Fort Tours, "Fort Marr"; Cherokee Nation, "Fort Cass Cherokee Agency & Emigration Depot"; National Register of Historic Places, Apalachia Hydroelectric Project nomination (2017); American Whitewater, "Hiwassee: Apalachia Powerhouse to Reliance" and "AW Launches Hiwassee Dries (TN/NC) Flow Survey" (Kevin Colburn, 2019); U.S. Forest Service, Cherokee National Forest, "Hiwassee River"; Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, trout regulations and license fees (2026) and "Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival to Celebrate 35th Anniversary January 17-18" (January 7, 2026); Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association, "Conservation"; National Weather Service, "Cold Water Safety"; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Cleveland Filter Plant station; Ocoee River State Park, tnstateparks.com; Hiwassee Scenic River State Park, tnstateparks.com.
