Lakeside Trail

Trail Name Lakeside Trail Park Bays Mountain Park Nearest City Kingsport State Tennessee Trail Marking Junction Signs Trail Use/Features Difficulty Rating Easy Hiking Time 1.51.5 Hours <br />0.0938 Days <br />90 Min <br /> Distance, round-trip 2.42.4 mi <br />3.862 km <br /> Climb/Descent Elevation 9393 Feet <br />28.346 Meters <br /> / {{{Elevation Loss}}}"{{{Elevation Loss}}}" is not a number. High Point 19231,923 Feet <br />641 Yards <br />586.13 Meters <br /> Nearest Medical Kingsport, TN Trip Reports Click Here Loading map... {"type":"ROADMAP","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"270px","height":"180px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":8,"layers":[],"controls":["zoom"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":36.50802999999999798319549881853163242340087890625,"lon":-82.61254999999999881765688769519329071044921875,"icon":""}]} Show Large Map

Trail Overview

Located at Bays Mountain Park. Very popular hiking loop trail around the reservoir. It connects with many other park trails, thus a common starting point. Officially takes 90 minutes on maintained path with moderate climbs and drops. A few benches are scattered along the trail. Points of interest include floating bridge, beaver activity (dams, lodges, and down/gnawed trees), lillypad pond, and the wolves and other animal habitats. Note red dirt from maroon shale in places.

How to get there

From parking lot, either cross the dam to hike in a clockwise direction or start at back of animal habitat by the aviary area.

Route Description

Miles	Lakeside Trail	Miles
0.0	Dam, end nearest Nature Center	2.4
0.1	Dam, far end	2.3
0.2	Pine Trail junction	2.2
0.4	Floating Bridge	2.0
0.5	Cherry Knobs Trail junction	1.9
1.1	Beaver Pond Bridge/ Sweet Gum Trail junction	1.3
1.6	Hemlock Tr./ (Firetower Trail) junction	0.8
1.7	Holly Trail/ Towhee Trail junction	0.7
1.8	Holly Trail junction	0.6
2.1	Fern Trail junction	0.3
2.3	Water Fowl Aviary/ Laurel Trail junction	0.1
2.4	Nature Center	0.0

Typical Conditions

The park does an excellent job keeping this most popular trail open. The path is heavily used, but sometime covered with mulch.

Regulations

NO BIKES!
Dogs are not allowed around the animal habitats, thus may have to skirt using Lake Road.

After the Hike

The animal habitats are a hit with kids of all ages.

Maps

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="36.50903" lon="-82.61255" type="terrain" zoom="15" width="715" height="350" scale="yes" controls="large" icons="http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/marker{label}.png"> http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/BMP_lakeside_trail.kml (G) 36.508894,-82.611436 Beginning of dam bridge (L) 36.50508,-82.61732 Floating bridge (G) 36.50578,-82.61832 Junction of Lakeside Trail and Cherry Knobs (L) 36.50596,-82.62100 Fixed bridge (L) 36.50874,-82.62153 Fixed bridge (L) 36.51039,-82.61639 Fixed bridge (L) 36.51131,-82.61443 Fixed bridge (J) 36.51267,-82.60963 No bridge at spring - pass around on uphill side (L) 36.51215,-82.60779 New trail bridge </googlemap>

Photos

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  Trailhead at reservoir dam

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  Trail thru hemlock grove

• Lakeside Trail - former avery area.jpg

  View across reservoir

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  Crossing the dam

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  Floating bridge