How to Explore Ijams Nature Center in One Morning

Three miles outside of downtown Knoxville there’s a refuge where you can escape the frenetic city life and reconnect to nature. Ijams Nature Center, a 318-acre wildlife sanctuary offers a tranquil river view, verdant forests, blossoming flowers, abundant wildlife, a beautiful lake, and over twelve miles of hiking trails to explore. You could spend an entire day here and still not see everything, but what if you only have a few hours? I’m going to share with you how to explore Ijams Nature Center in one morning.

Let me be perfectly honest. There is no way you can experience all Ijams has to offer in just one morning. But you can hit the highlights. Then you can decide if one morning was enough. If you’re like me, you’ll return repeatedly to explore and enjoy this amazing area.

Before I tell you how to explore Ijams Nature Center in one morning let’s get a little background info. Ijams Nature Center is at the heart of Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness.

What’s the Urban Wilderness? It’s an area in south Knoxville that encompasses over 1000 acres of land and contains over sixty miles of trails and greenways. It’s your escape from the city of Knoxville without ever leaving the city. Eventually we’ll be exploring more of Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness but for right now, let’s begin with Ijams.

Ijams Nature Center is located in South Knoxville in the Island Home area. You can click here for directions, or just enter their name or address, 2915 Island Home Avenue, into your GPS.

The grounds are open every day from 8am – dusk. The Visitor Center, which features a gift shop and most importantly, restrooms, is open Sunday-Friday from 10am-5pm and Saturday from 9am-5pm.

If you want to explore Ijams Nature Center in one morning, you’ll need to get an early start and get there by 8am. Because the visitor’s center doesn’t open until 10, you’ll want to download the map ahead of time. This shows you all the trails and their difficulty ratings. This is also where you check to see if any of the trails are closed. You can access all that information here.

You’re going to want to have a good breakfast before you set off in the morning because you’re going to be burning some calories. In addition, make sure you bring plenty of water and possibly some snacks. While the Visitor Center does have a good selection of drinks and snacks, to make the best use of your time, wait until the end of your trip to stop here. In addition, you want to wear comfortable shoes that will cover your toes.

Once you reach Ijams, you can park at the Visitor Center or drive a little further and park at Mead’s Quarry. Wherever you choose to park, make sure you pay the five dollars parking fee. For those of you who are local and have been here before, this is a relatively new requirement. Judging from the signs, they are very serious about this.  You can pay at the Visitor Center, but if you get there before it opens, you’ll need to access the QR code on the numerous signs and pay using Metropolis.

The River Boardwalk is one of Ijams top attractions. In my opinion, the best time to see it is first thing in the morning when the sun is sitting lower in the sky, so that’s where you’ll want to start. In addition, getting there at this time of the morning means there are usually fewer people to share the trail with.

The Boardwalk can be accessed two different ways.

1. Park at the main parking lot and catch the Universal Trail outside of the Visitor Center and follow it to the North Cove Trail and then turn on the River Trail.
2. Park at the Quarry and take the Will Skelton Greenway to the River Trail and then to the Boardwalk.

I’ve been both ways and I will say that while the River Trail is ranked as an easy trail, the North Cove Trail is rated as a difficult one. When a friend of mine and I used this trail last fall, we both agreed it wasn’t a horrible trail. Neither one of us had any significant problems.  But like most trails, you’re dealing with protruding tree roots, and you’re doing so on a descending trail. If you have any mobility or balance issues it might be a problem.**

When I went back to Ijams this week, I decided to try the other trails.  I parked at the Quarry. Taking the Will Skelton Greenway and then the River Trail made for a much easier walk.  Bear in mind, regardless of which way you go, the River Boardwalk has several steps to navigate.

Once you get to the Boardwalk, take your time and enjoy the peaceful setting and the great views along the Tennessee River. Take a few moments and sit on one of the benches. Sit back, relax, and enjoy listening to the birds sing, and the water lapping against the shore. Don’t forget to take a quick selfie with the river in the background.

One word of warning, poison ivy grows along the cliffs by the boardwalk so be very careful.  

If you’re like me, you could sit for hours and watch the river go by. Take your time and enjoy the solitude. If all you see is the River Boardwalk, it’s been worth the trip. But if you want to see more of what Ijams has to offer, it’s time to head towards the Ijams’ homesite.

Once you leave the River Boardwalk, keep an eye out for the sign for the Ijams Homesite. This trail will lead you past quiet river overlooks. Watch out for the spider webs, especially if you are one of the first to travel these trails in the morning.

If you follow these trails you come to the Lotus Pond which was built to provide the daughters of the original owner a safe place to swim and paddle their canoe. While some of the pond remains, it is more of a wetland now. Most of this area is surrounded by a boardwalk and it’s a very pleasant walk. If you’re fortunate, you might see some dragonflies, ducks, or turtles.

Hiking along the Discovery Trail will lead you through the Ijams rock garden which showcases native wildflowers. The Discovery Trail will also lead you to the Serendipity Trail which is a paved trail that winds around the old Ijams Homesite gardens.

The Miller building which houses a preschool now occupies the original site, but you can still see the terraced gardens with Boxwoods planted by the Ijams family. Bear in mind that the Ijams foundation only employees three groundskeepers to keep up with 318 acres of property. They are very dependent on their volunteers.

While you’re near the homesite, make sure you check out the secret pond. It wasn’t at all what I expected.

Once you’ve looked around at the Homesite, you can follow the Will Skelton Greenway back to the Mead’s Quarry parking area. This 3.6-mile paved greenway is part of the Urban Wilderness. It connects Ijams to Island Home Park on one end and Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area at the other.

Now that you’re probably a little warm from all this hiking, Mead’s Quarry Lake is the next stop. This 25-acre lake is spring-fed and surrounded by towering rocks. It’s a great place to cool off in the summer after a long hike. However, bear in mind there are no lifeguards on duty here and you are swimming at your own risk. That said, they’ve installed what I would call floating docks which I think would be cool to sit on and dangle your feet into the water.

In addition, you can rent kayaks, canoes, paddle boards, and tubes from River Sports Outfitters. Renting a kayak and paddling around the quarry gives you a closer look at this beautiful lake. You can click here for more information. Unfortunately, private boats are not permitted on Mead’s Quarry Lake.

If you’re local, you’ve probably heard about the rockslide that happened at Mead’s Quarry in May. According to WVLT, the staff at Ijams Nature Center installed “warning buoys and a float rope that designates a no-go zone on the lake”. The zone is aimed at keeping swimmers in the safe part of the swimming area, away from future falling rocks.”  You can click here for more information.

If you’re not up for spending time at Mead’s Quarry, there’s one additional hike you might want to try. You must see the Keyhole at Ross Marble Quarry. This man-made rock bridge features huge blocks piled up to form a wall with an entrance to pass through…hence the “keyhole”. It was built by quarry workers to save time moving men and machinery from one side of the pit to the other. You can find more information here.

To get to the Keyhole from the Mead’s Quarry parking lot watch for the signs for Imery’s trail. Initially the trail will be in the sunlight. As you walk, you may be reconsidering leaving the cool waters of the quarry. But hang on because after just a short time you will head into the woods.  Then watch for the signs to the right for the Ross Marble Loop and the “Rock Bridge”. You can take either path to get there. One note: when they say Ross Marble is more difficult, take their word for it.

I’ve done this hike twice. Once was on a fall morning with a cool misty rain. For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to try this hike and bring my goldendoodle, Murphy. I would not suggest doing this hike in wet weather. The trail is littered with stones and protruding roots that seemed determined to trip you up. In addition, the “steps” down to the keyhole were very slippery.

This trip I went in the opposite direction, and it was a more difficult hike, but it was dry so I think it evened out. Just watch your step as you hike to the Keyhole. Quite frankly, it is a little creepy to think of that much weight positioned right over your head.

Depending on how much time you’ve spent at the Quarry, you may have only a few minutes to make your final stop … the Visitor Center.  According to the website, over 75 local artists offer their goods at the Visitor Center gift shop. And more importantly, they carry Vienna coffee. After all this hiking, a vanilla cold brew really hits the spot.

You’ve made it through your morning visit to Ijams, but you might not be quite ready to leave. So pull out that cooler with your lunch and enjoy just a few more minutes of tranquility. But if you’ve had enough of the wild outdoors and are ready to re-enter civilization, you might want to head to Kerns Food Hall.

What about you? Have you been to Ijams? Did you visit the Keyhole?  Please comment below.

** My opinions about the accessibility of a business, park, or any other place mentioned on my website are strictly my opinions. Only you are aware of any and all of your accessibility issues, and only you can safely make decisions on what is right for you.