Yanahli Park

Yanahli Park (YP)

922 Iron Bridge Road
Columbia, TN 38401

Web: www.yanahlipark.com 

Yanahli Park, Maury County’s largest and newest park, is a 474-acre park boasting numerous ecosystems, diverse flora and fauna, unique geologic and hydrological features, and likely the presence of rare, threatened, and endangered species. The site also contains culturally significant features, most notably historic settlements, burial sites, old rock walls, and remnants of the abandoned TVA Columbia Dam.

The park contains nearly two-miles of perennial and intermittent streams and is bordered on three sides by the Duck River, a water body of national and worldwide importance due to its populations of numerous rare, threatened, and endangered fish and mussels. Yanahli is a Chickasaw word meaning “to flow through”: The Chickasaw and other tribes have been using the Duck River as a major transportation and food source dating back at least 11,000 years ago. Varying forest types across the property form a mosaic of both natural and human altered landscapes from pockets of rich woods containing wildflowers to managed hay and corn fields. The ecosystem diversity has, in turn, created a wide variety of habitats for numerous animals including migratory birds, waterfowl, reptiles, amphibians, and aquatic mammals. All of this makes Yanahli Park an extremely valuable asset for nature based recreation and education.

The park provides connectivity to the 12,000-acre Yanahli Wildlife Management Area. Cheeks Bend 800-acre natural area is a part of the Duck River Complex of State Natural Areas located within Yanahli Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and managed by the TWRA. Cheeks Bend Bluff View Trail is a two mile trail that wanders along the bluff overlooking the Duck River. The trail intersects with Rummage Cave, a short, horizontal cave with five oval rooms about 30 feet wide that bring you near the base of the bluff.

Presently, Yanahli Park contains a new access road, parking, restrooms, 1 2/3-mile paved trail, and undeveloped access to the Duck River. To learn more, visit www.yanahlipark.com or review the Yanahli Park Master Plan.

Park Amenities:

  • Yanahli Loop Paved Trail (1.65-mile)
  • Restrooms
  • More to come!