Image Gallery 
Plan Your Visit  Park Brochure Park Map Programs DirectionsTake I 65 to Harding Place, Exit 78. Travel west on Harding Place (or Battery Lane) to Granny White Pike. Turn left and travel south to Otter Creek Road and turn left (across from Granny White Market). Detailed directions To the park | From the park Hours of OperationPark: 6:00 a.m. to Dark Visitors Center: daily Sunday-Monday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Friday-Saturday: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Park Information Accessibility
 The hiking trails are accessible to persons with a disability when using "all-terrain" wheelchairs available at the Visitors' Center.Learn more about Tennessee State Parks' accessibility Friends Group Friends of Radnor Lake Points of Interest » Warner Parks » Travelers Rest - home of John Overton » Brentwood City Parks » Natchez Trace Parkway » Historic Franklin |
Radnor Lake State Park
1160 Otter Creek Road |
Nashville, TN 37220-1700
Office: 615-373-3467
Volunteer Day - Sat., Jan. 28, 8am-12noon
Help kick off the Valve House Trail Project. No reservations needed. Thanks to Friends of Radnor Lake and REI!
Radnor Lake State Park is located in Davidson County in the midst of the Overton Hills, south of Metropolitan Nashville in the Oak Hill Community. This natural area provides a variety of scenic spots and a diversity of natural habitats ranging from the lake, to streams and placid sloughs. Wildlife and numerous species of plants are in abundance. It is a place that provides scenic, biological, geological, and passive recreational opportunities not found in other metropolitan areas of Nashville's size.
Radnor Lake is day use only and is protected as a Class II Natural Area, so the trails are strictly used for hiking and wildlife observation.
Trails are off limits to pets, jogging, and bicycles.
Spillway Trail (.27m) easy
Lake Trail (1.3m) easy
Ganier Ridge Trail (1.55m) strenuous
Access Trail (.24m) moderate
South Lake Trail (.9m) moderate
South Cove Trail (1.3m) strenuous
Otter Creek Road (1.1m lot to lot) easy - Pets, jogging, and bicycles allowed.
Great Hikes With Fran Wallas:
Radnor Lake State Natural Area Offers an Easy
Hike for People Wild About Wildflowers
Radnor Lake State Park provides a variety of scenic areas and a diversity
of natural habitats. It even has some of the highest hills in the Nashville
Basin. Wildlife is amazingly abundant. One can observe geese, herons, coots,
and other birds as well as many species of salamanders, frogs, snakes, lizards,
turtles, and mammals. Hundreds of species of wildflowers, mosses, fungi, ferns,
and other lesser plants as well as trees, shrubs, and vines add to the natural
ecological diversity of the area.
Radnor's geology is also fascinating and complex. The rocks, which form its hills and valleys, were deposited on the floor of a shallow, tropical, inland sea 500,000,000 years ago.
The 85-acre lake for which the site is named was impounded in 1914 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company to furnish water for steam engines and livestock at nearby Radnor Yards. It was intended that the site would provide a private hunting and fishing preserve for L & N officials and their guests. Soon after construction of the lake, many birds discovered it and began to feed and rest there during their annual migration. In 1923, the executive vice-president of L & N stopped all hunting and declared the area a wildlife sanctuary at the request of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. In 1962, the area was purchased by a construction firm and plans were made to subdivide the property for a housing development. Shortly thereafter, public sentiment arose to preserve the area as a park. In 1973, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, with the financial assistance of the Federal Government and thousands of concerned citizens, purchased the Radnor site as the first official state natural area.
Hiking, nature study and observation, photography, and research are the major activities presently enjoyed by Radnor's many annual visitors. It is a place that provides scenic, biological, geological, and passive recreational opportunities not found in other metropolitan areas of Nashville's size.
Visit the Natural Areas web site.
Several programs are planned throughout the year. Some include canoe floats, wildflower walks, astronomy night hikes, nature hikes, programs on snakes, cave ecology, and birds of prey.» Volunteer Days sponsored by the Friends of Radnor Lake (TBA)
Radnor Lake Educational Brochures
Amphibians
Invasive Plants - Top 4
Reptiles
Tour Buses
Buses not appropriate for east entrance. Call park for more information.
