To Watts Bar Lake and Back

One of the hidden gems on the Tennessee River is Watts Bar Lake. It is far enough from both Chattanooga and Knoxville that it doesn't attract a tremendous amount of boat traffic on the weekends. And it is absolutely gorgeous! Any pictures we share will not do it justice. This trip has been on our list of things to do for some time now, and we finally made it happen.

We left on Friday morning the 28th of August and headed up river. Our first nights destination was an anchorage just up river from the Watts Bar Dam and Lock. This worked out to be a 54 mile travel day which is one of the longer trips we've made in one day. It was a beautiful day...not much river traffic at all. We stopped at Blue Water Marina for a doggy pit stop, which worked out to be about half-way. And then we stopped shortly before the dam at a random boat ramp for another dog break with the dinghy. Once we got to the Watts Bar lock, we had a short wait, but had the lock to ourselves. Here's a pic of what we see looking out the front window inside the lock:

 



 

Our destination for the night was an anchorage at Meigs County Park. There is a really nice cove here, with a lighted boat ramp and dock. It worked out great for us, and we had a pleasant evening after a longish day. 

Anchorage at sunset

Anchorage the next morning

 





Saturday was another pretty day, and we used it to explore Watts Bar Lake and the Tennessee River moving further upstream. Here is an assortment of shots that we took during the day:

Cormorants and White Herons enjoying the same piece of turf.

 

We're definitely in the land of the Tennessee Volunteers!



 

Our anchorage for the night was Whitestone Inn. We had thought we were going to spend the night at their dock, but found that it was a tad too small for our boat, so we found an anchorage just around the corner. Whitestone Inn is a family run Estate/Inn/Church all combined, and has a great reputation for outstanding food, facilities and service. Unfortunately the restaurant was booked full for the evening. BUT, we arranged for them to deliver a full 5-course meal to their dock for us. All we had to do was take the dinghy over to pick it up. It worked out great...the food was good...and best of all, we didn't have to cook!

 

A few shots from our anchorage for the night...

 

 

And of Whitestone Inn from the River...

The next morning brought a rather cloudy day, but we had the entire river to ourselves. It was awesome! We cruised further up river to the other side of I-75, which put us approximately 110 miles up the river from our home marina. We had already decided that we wanted to head to a marina for the night, so after about 55 miles of cruising we landed at Blue Springs Marina...still on Watts Bar Lake. We had a nice night, met a few of the local boaters, and enjoyed a quiet night at the dock.

Monday morning was gorgeous...sunny and beautiful. We had a long day ahead of us...70+ miles of cruising to get home, so it was really nice to have perfect weather for a long day on the water. We hit Watts Bar lock by 10 am, and had it all to ourselves again.

 

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant

 

 

 

River Tow pushing a load of barges

 

 

 

Tired crew after a long day of cruising!