Nickajack Lake

Nickajack Lake is the part of the Tennessee River held back by Nickajack Dam. It is quieter than the lakes closer to Chattanooga, and on a weekday long stretches of shoreline are empty.

Where to get on the water

Access point	What is there	Address
Nickajack Dam Reservation	Launch ramps on both banks, fishing berms, an accessible fishing pier. Day use.	Near Jasper
Marion County Park	Boat ramp, swimming area, fishing pier, picnic pavilions, playground, campground	9696 US-41, Jasper
Shellmound Campground	Boat ramp, dock, swimming, playground, campground	2735 TVA Rd, Jasper
Hales Bar Marina	Boat ramp, 220+ covered slips, pontoon rentals, ship store	1265 Hales Bar Rd, Guild
Maple View Public Use Area	Boardwalk to the bat cave viewing area, bank fishing	Near New Hope and South Pittsburg

Boating and rentals

Bring your own boat to any ramp above, or rent at Hales Bar Marina, which has pontoon boats and kayaks. Call the marina at (423) 942-9000 to reserve. The lake is also used for jet skiing and paddleboarding.

Part of the lake lies in the Tennessee River Gorge, sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Tennessee, where cliffs and forest rise on both sides of the water.

Fishing

Anglers come to Nickajack for largemouth and smallmouth bass. The lake also holds striped bass, catfish and crappie. Grassy banks, riprap and submerged structure give you different water to work through the year.

You can fish from the bank or pier at Marion County Park, Shellmound, Maple View and the dam. See Fishing for more spots and license rules. New to it? Start with the beginner’s guide to fishing here.

Paddling

Nickajack is a reservoir, so it is flat water and fine for beginners. Kayakers use the coves, the water in front of the cave and the gorge. Guided sunset paddles to the bat cave, run by Chattanooga Guided Adventures, go out in season from a public ramp in the South Pittsburg area. They cover about three miles round trip and finish after dark, and they sell out in summer, so book ahead.

The bat cave

Tens of thousands of endangered gray bats live in Nickajack Cave in the warm months. At dusk they leave together to hunt insects over the lake, and the flight can last 20 minutes to an hour.

• Watch for free from the boardwalk at Maple View Public Use Area.
• Arrive 30 minutes before sunset.
• Skip the flash and white flashlights. They disturb the colony.
• The cave is gated. Going inside is illegal.

The bat cave guide covers both the boardwalk and the kayak tours in detail.

Swimming and picnics

Marion County Park, on US-41 near Jasper, is the easy choice with kids. It has a designated swimming area, a playground, picnic tables and parking a short walk from the water. Reservoir water warms up earlier in the season than the creeks in the gorges.

Shellmound has picnic tables near the water and a wide lawn. If you would rather swim under a waterfall, see the ranked list of swimming holes.

Staying on the lake

Hales Bar Marina rents floating cabins and land cabins and has 53 full-hookup RV sites. Shellmound Campground and Marion County Park both take RVs and tents next to a ramp. See Camping & RVs for hookups and how each one handles reservations, and Vacation Rentals for lake houses.

History of the lake

Before the reservoir, this bend of the river was the site of the Cherokee town of Nickajack. Nickajack Cave was used as a shelter by Native Americans and, by local account, later as a hideout for river pirates. It was mined for saltpeter, an ingredient in gunpowder, during the Civil War.

The first dam here was Hales Bar Dam, finished in 1913. It leaked for decades. The Tennessee Valley Authority built Nickajack Dam downstream to replace it, and the new reservoir filled in 1967, flooding the lower passages of the cave. The Hales Bar powerhouse still stands at the marina.

Johnny Cash and Nickajack Cave

In his 1997 autobiography, Johnny Cash wrote that he came to Nickajack Cave in 1967, deep in an amphetamine addiction, intending to die there. He crawled in until his flashlight failed and lay down in the dark. He described a moment of clarity in which he understood that his death was not his to choose. “I was going to die at God’s time, not mine,” he wrote. He then crawled out without a light and found June Carter and his mother waiting at the entrance.

Historians point out that the story does not appear in his 1975 memoir and surfaced thirty years after the fact. It is the account Cash gave of himself, not documented history.