Day trips from Nashville · Hiking
Lula Lake Land Trust
140 miles from downtown Nashville · about 2 hours 15 minutes
Lookout Mountain, Georgia
Lula Lake is a 1,200-acre private conservation preserve on Lookout Mountain built around a lake and a waterfall of roughly 120 feet on Rock Creek. Access is deliberately restricted to protect it, and the rules are stricter than anywhere else in this guide.
- Address
- 5000 Lula Lake Road, Lookout Mountain, GA
- Open to the public
- First and last weekends of each month only
- Fee
- $16 per reservation, which is one parking space
- Standard hike
- 4.2 miles round trip, 2 to 3 hours
Permits, fees and access
Read this twice, because it is the strictest access policy on this site. The general public may only visit on Open Gate Days, which are the first and last weekends of each month. Reservations are required and there is no admittance without one. They are booked through Eventbrite up to two months ahead. The fee is sixteen dollars per reservation and a reservation is one parking space, not one person. Hours are 9am to 5pm Eastern, but the entrance gate closes at 1pm and there are no late arrivals. Everyone has to be out by five.
One thing to know first
The 1pm gate closure is the thing that catches people. Driving two and a quarter hours and arriving at 1:15 means you do not get in, reservation or not. Leave Nashville in the morning.
Access rules, fees and closures verified August 15, 2026 against the agency that manages this place. They change, sometimes without notice. Check before you drive.
I keep this list because it is genuinely how people spend weekends here, and because almost every guide to it is out of date. If you are weighing a move to Middle Tennessee and want to know which part of it puts you closest to the things you actually like, ask me. No pitch.