This post was freelanced for Tennessee State Parks, originally published on their blog as “Lakefront Luxury: A Family Getaway at the Lodge at Paris Landing.” I was financially compensated for this post.
There’s no peace like that of the forest in winter. The buzz of activity from the warmer months has been silenced, and it’s quiet enough to hear the tiny signs of life that remain in the cold – the scampering of little paws across fallen leaves, the flutter of wings climbing through empty branches. It’s a stillness that perfectly mirrors the calm I seek during “Twixmas,” the week between Christmas and New Year’s when we’re left sated, yet depleted, from the chaos of the season. For the past few years, my family has used this time to escape to one of our Tennessee State Parks. It’s the perfect antidote to the clutter of the house and overstimulation of the holidays as we reset in the calm simplicity of nature.
This year, we spent a weekend relaxing and enjoying the amenities at Paris Landing State Park. Located in northwest Tennessee, on the western shore of Kentucky Lake and just 5 miles from the Kentucky border, Paris Landing is considered one of the system’s “resort parks” boasting a lodge and restaurant, campgrounds and cabins, venue space, pavilions, marina, and golf course in addition to its natural wildlife.
The park sits on a spot of historical significance; once territory of the powerful Chickasaw Nation, Paris Landing became a highly-trafficked steamboat and freight stop on the Tennessee River as river transportation flourished in the early 1800s. By the mid-1850s, it had gained such renown that it became a critical base for troops during the Civil War. When the Tennessee River was dammed in 1944, it formed the 184-mile-long Kentucky Lake stretching from Kentucky Dam in Gilbertsville, KY, down into Tennessee. This historic Paris Landing is now under the lake’s waters, but the state park was founded in 1945 just inland from that spot.
LODGE & RESTAURANT
On a piece of level ground on the shores of the lake, the original Paris Landing Hotel stood from the early 1950s until 2018 when it was demolished and replaced by the current resort-style lodge. This was to be our first stay at one of the State Parks’ lodges that have been newly built or renovated since 2020. We usually spend Twixmas in a self-catering cabin with enough room for separate spaces between us and the kids, but the Lodge at Paris Landing offered the best of both worlds for our weekend stay: a King suite offering a separate bedroom with a living room sofa bed (several additional room types available) alongside continental breakfast and an on-site restaurant open daily for both lunch and dinner. With these amenities, we didn’t even have to pack groceries!
If Twixmas sounds like it requires a cozy, winter dreariness, then the weather forecast for our weekend understood the assignment. As we drove into the park on Friday afternoon, the skies were gray, heavy with a persistent drizzle. Once we entered the lodge, however, it was all light. With a vaulted atrium and floor-to-ceiling windows, the lobby floor of the lodge offers a stunning view of Kentucky Lake, as do many of its lakefront rooms. We explored the common spaces – including multiple seating areas and a corner lounge complete with a fireplace, TV, coffee table books, and baskets of toys for the kids – before checking into our room and settling in with a few board games, the lake a peaceful backdrop through our sliding glass doors.
A real draw of staying in the lodge is that the Restaurant at Paris Landing is right downstairs – and it was fully open during our stay! Stretched over the lodge’s ground floor, the restaurant features an intimate bar space and multiple dining areas overlooking the lake. On the first night of our stay, we counted the minutes until an acceptable dinner hour and dashed down to a table with a fantastic view. Daily specials round out a wonderfully varied seasonal menu of Southern favorites and healthy dishes; I savored my go-to lakefront choice of fried catfish, while my husband enjoyed the apricot glazed chicken and vegetables. The kids were happy with their menu as well, which fortunately has enough options for a multi-day stay. It wasn’t a difficult decision to dine there two nights in a row.
CABINS AND CAMPING
In addition to the lodge, Paris Landing offers year-round stays in its ten standard 3-bedroom, 2-bath cabins that can accommodate up to ten people, each with stunning floor-to-ceiling lake views.
If you’re seeking accommodations even closer to nature, the campground has 45 sites with electricity and water and 18 primitive sites that are open year-round. There are even six small camping cabins located on the campground, complete with heat and air conditioning and two XL double beds, perfect for a rustic overnight trip without all the gear. In addition, the Big Eagle Base Group Camp on the western end of the golf course can accommodate up to 50 people and features 2.5 acres of mostly grassy fields and nearly 700 feet of lakeshore.
NATURE CENTER
On Saturday morning, before heavier rain moved into the area, we ventured out into the wilds of the park. I always seek a recommendation from a park employee, so our first stop was the Nature Center which, according to the ranger, had been kept open during winter for the first time…and was consistently welcoming visitors, despite the off-season! Interpretive Ranger Christa Davidson was eager to show off their collections: “We’ve had a lot of people tell us it’s the best in the system, because it’s different from any other one in the state.” The education center encourages visitors to get close to its live birds, fish, snakes, and frogs, and hands-on with its collection of pelts, skeletons, and other geological artifacts.
Paris Landing is also one of the Tennessee State Parks that runs a “Birds of Prey” program, funded through donations, with an on-site raptor rehabilitation program that works to release injured birds back out into the wild. New aviaries are located behind the nature center to shelter the birds and provide on-site educational opportunities for park visitors and local school groups. The park also has a private rehabilitation center for some of the birds.
HIKING
After visiting the Nature Center, we had just a few feet to travel for the other activity on our morning agenda; there’s no way we could miss out on a peaceful winter hike while on a trip taken for relaxation! The trailhead lies only a stone’s throw away and connects two hiking trails for about 3.5 miles total. The route begins as the Wetlands Walk Loop, a .5-mile loop in total, but a third of the way in, you can connect to the longer Raptor Ridge Trail. This one, a 2.5-mile lollipop, is the park’s signature trail as it rolls through the forest and along the lakeshore.
My kids, probably like most, are hit or miss with their motivation for a hike. Some days they breeze through miles, amusing themselves and caught up in whatever’s happening in their own heads; others, they plod along with a complaint of exhaustion or hunger with each step. On this day, it was the latter. Determined to keep morale high on what was supposed to be a rejuvenating stroll through nature, I earned my parent badge for 2025 by drawing the kids into an imaginary world as we escaped pirates (boats seen on the water) and collected ammunition (fallen tree nuts and prickly seed pods) on our quest for the treasure. At the guidance of Ranger Davidson, and unbeknownst to my kids, there was, in fact, treasure to find–a short spur trail leads to rocky shoreline across from the lodge and absolutely blanketed in delicate snail shells. My eldest exclaimed, “This feels like a dream!” with a huge grin on her face; so though it wasn’t necessarily the peaceful hike I’d sought, I knew it had been a success. (The Nature Center offers a kids’ scavenger hunt activity kit for a boost of engagement–so new that they were completed the day after we hiked!)
The trail system at Paris Landing is still growing. One of the park’s newest acquisitions is an all-terrain wheelchair, available at no cost to park visitors, for enhanced accessibility to its trails.
MARINA
Though it wasn’t my ideal boating season during our visit, it’s still worth sharing that the park’s biggest attraction during warmer months, no doubt, is the waterfront. Kentucky Lake is beautiful–and huge! It boasts an abundance of fish year-round that includes bluegill, bass, and catfish. It’s also a designated Bill Dance Signature Lake, one of several in Tennessee that benefit from state-funded habitat maintenance and facility enhancements. We saw dedicated anglers on the lake, even in late December. The park’s full-service marina features both covered and uncovered slips, a four-lane public boat launch, and an overnight parking lot. If your family is boatless like mine, you can rent one from the marina or seek out one of the ranger-led canoe or kayak floats!
When it’s cold outside, I’m pulled in two different directions–one part of me wants to stay inside and hibernate, but the other part is drawn to the tranquility of the outdoors. Nature is blanketed by peace and quiet in a way that’s different from the rest of the year. This Twixmas trip was another reminder that there are few things more invigorating than a deep breath of cold winter air to start a new year.
CHECKLIST:
Date: December 2024
Count: 33 of 57
Region: West
Must-See: The lodge is worth a visit for the views and amenities, but you’ve got to visit the Nature Center and chat with the Park Rangers.
