Day trips from Nashville · Hiking
Percy and Edwin Warner Parks
10 miles from downtown Nashville · about 20 minutes
Metro Nashville Parks, Davidson County, Nashville
The Warner Parks are more than three thousand acres of forested ridge twenty minutes from downtown, with a trail system that ranges from a 150-yard loop to a four and a half mile circuit. It is the largest municipally administered park in Tennessee and it does not feel like it is in a city.
- Mossy Ridge Trail
- 4.5 mile loop, moderate
- Warner Woods Trail
- 2.5 mile loop, moderate
- Harpeth Woods Trail
- 2.5 mile loop, moderate
- Hours
- Daybreak until 11pm
Permits, fees and access
Free. Trails open at daybreak and the park closes at 11pm. Dogs are allowed on a leash no longer than six feet. The Warner Park Nature Center is the place to start if you have not been before.
One thing to know first
Mossy Ridge is genuinely hilly despite being inside the city, and people who pick it because the mileage sounds modest find that out around the halfway point. Note also that the widely repeated 5.1 mile figure for Mossy Ridge conflicts with the city’s own 4.5 miles. Use the city’s number.
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.
The neighborhoods closest to it
If this is the kind of Saturday you want a short drive from your front door, these are the parts of Middle Tennessee that put you nearest to it.
I keep this list because it is genuinely how people spend weekends here, and because almost every guide to it is out of date.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.