Piercy Priest Lake

We recently took a trip to Chattanooga for the Tennessee Music Teacher's State Competition.  Hopefully at some point I can post about all the amazing places we went while in Chattanooga. The kids loved it because it is largely walkable even with small children and there were a lot of fun family oriented things to do. On our way home we wanted to do something fun since the drive was only five and a half hours, but as anyone who has traveled with kids knows it can feel MUCH longer if they don't get a chance to get out and stretch. We were looking up fun places to go on our route and found Percy Priest lake near Nashville. It was about two hours from Chattanooga, and three and a half home so it seemed like a good stopping point for a picnic lunch and swimming on their beautiful sand beach. After reading some reviews of the lake we decided to try it out.  We went to the Anderson Road Day Use Area. It is $4 per car and I think the beach is open till 6:30pm but didn't see the opening time. We went on a Monday, it was sprinkling and overcast and surprisingly the beach wasn't empty.  We loved it!! There was a playground, bath house, and tons of picnic tables in slightly wooded area most with grills. The sand beach isn't huge, but big enough. There are some cool rock formations in the water and my children appreciated having their water shoes but almost everyone else was barefoot. A swimming area is marked off that is pretty large and only about 4 ft deep. The water was clear and warm enough for swimming despite the rain. We had an amazing time are planning our next trip back.