Hello friends! Welcome to Smoky Mountain Moms! We are Sarah and Stephanie who love to share all things in the Smoky Mountain area, surrounding areas as well as homeschool, motherhood, and restaurants. You name it, we will probably talk about it at some point or another. Well today we have an awesome place to share with you!
Over my fall break, I decided to rearrange my house… YIKES! That always leads to a bigger mess especially with 3 kids. I had stuff EVERYWHERE! I was moving so many things around, trying to go through things during the process of moving stuff… (because ya know, Christmas is 2 months away) while the kids were taking out toys and playing in the middle of the floor where I need to move something! Oh, let’s not forget the fighting between the 3 of them. “MOM, sis keeps copying me” … EYEROLL! Being a mom is not an Olympic sport, but it should be! Can I get an AMEN?
During that time Sarah sent me this Instagram reel of this park. As soon as I saw it, I said “let’s go tomorrow!” I needed to get out the house and so did my kids, plus this place looked awesome. I didn’t even think twice about the mess I created at home. I told myself; I can get to it tomorrow and I did.
This wonderful park is called Aspire Inspiration Recreation. The Southeast’s Largest FREE Privately Owned Park located in Clinton, Tennessee.
Pack a lunch & your wagon because you’ll want to drop everything to take your family!!
Aspire has 370 acres of different landscapes from rivers, mountains, and meadows. These unique features offer many activities for those who visit the park. I have a list below of all the activities…
- Dining: The Pearl that serves lunch and dinner for the entire family. It also has 2 roof top bars if you need a drink. The rooftop bars overlook the playground and wildflower meadow. Click the highlighted The Pearl and you can check out their menu.
- The Great Lawn- This is also a great picnic area. It’s a wide-open landscape. Plenty of room for FUN! Grab your cute blanket, family games, picnic basket, and unplug from the world to enjoy a day just having a family fun day! Bring a book for a family read aloud and snacks to go along with the book! Have a bunch of girlfriends who like yoga, go for a morning yoga session on The Great Lawn! Don’t forget a small speaker for some relaxing yoga music!
- Wildflower Meadow- is an ever-changing landscape with pure beauty of wildflowers and their soothing fragrance’s. This would be a charming place for a picnic with all of the fun vibrant flowers around. It would also be a pretty place for photographs. A couples or family picnic photo sess would be adorable!! Bring a cute blanket to sit on!
- The Grove- If you need to escape the hustle and bustle for a quiet walk, The Grove would be it. Nice little walking trail.
- Hiking and Mountain Biking- 22-mile trails for you to hike or bike. They have signs posted so you can choose what’s best for you if you want something moderate or more amped up. We did not check out the hiking or biking trails but would love to do a hike with the kid’s next time. We would surely choose something moderate with the kids however something a little more amped up sounds fun!
- The Launch- This is directly located on the Clinch River. This is for non-motorized or human powered vessels only. They have a ramp so you can easily get in and out of the river. The Launch has a fishing pier for you to go fishing for some trout. Not a bad place for a picnic after a little fishing on the river and listening to the soothing sounds of the water.
- GritN Bank It Bike Park- It is designed for all ages and skill levels. Pack the bikes or even scooters and go hit up this little area! It is full of excitement for everyone with all kinds of ramps and get some awesome jumps. Our kids loved it even with their scooters.
- Adventure Playground- This awesome playground is great for all ages. It is a color- coded ground for age groups such as toddlers, preschool, and older kids. Honestly, our kids enjoyed each area and inspected each one! They have this cool structure to climb, crawl and slide. There is so much to do that your kid can have such an imagination and creativity there. From obstacle courses, slides, swings, kiddie ziplines, climbing areas, little houses and some I’m not even sure what it is. The big slide might be frightening for the little bitty ones, but we went up with our 3-year-olds and they loved it! They wouldn’t go by their selves but that’s okay, it was actually fun for us moms as well! It went pretty fast. Our 7- and 6-year-olds absolutely loved it and probably did that the most while we were in the playground area.
- Bark Park- Don’t have any kids, but have a dog? Go for yourself & your pup! The bark park is an off-leash dog park for all breeds and sizes. It is divided into separate areas for small dogs and big dogs. It has water stations and waste bins throughout the park. Just make sure you clean up after your pup to keep the place clean and beautiful!
- The Exchange- This area has an open aired pavilion. It is surrounded by The Grove. It is such a peaceful area where you can host a formal or informal event. It would be awesome for a family picnic, picnic with friends, homeschool outside or with homeschool friends, different parties, and or a food truck event.
This park is one of a kind and worth visiting! We visited the Adventure Playground, GritN Bank, and a peek inside The Pearl. Inside of The Pearl restaurant is a bathroom for any potty breaks needed. We drove about an hour to get there so no doubt we had to find the restroom first. The kids loved it all and really didn’t want to leave. We soaked in every moment we had there. It was so refreshing and breath taking of the beautiful mountains while playing. We brought the kids scooters, packed us all lunches, snacks, and drinks. We piled everything up in my wagon. They have picnic tables around the GritN Bank Park, that’s where we had our picnic. The covers of the picnic area are different colors so you can spot them easily. The kid’s sat and ate for a few minutes, then off to ride their scooters on some ramps.
If you go to Aspire, we hope you have a wonderful time!!
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