Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium

Bays Mountain Park is a nature park and planetarium located on Bays Mountain in Kingsport, Tennessee, featuring cross-cut viewing sections of beaver dams, bee hives, cave systems, and more. The park features a nature center and outdoor native animal displays including a bobcat, raptor center, river otters, a waterfowl aviary, wolf pen and free-roaming white-tail deer. Wolf howling sessions are held regularly, where people are allowed to howl with the wolves, spurring the wolves into howling even more. There is also a herpetarium with snakes and amphibians. The Steadman Heritage Farmstead Museum is a 19th-century period living history farm museum. One popular activity is called the Barge Ride. This attraction features a ride through the Bays Mountain Reservoir on a pontoon boat while learning about the nature around you. The park also features a freeze-drying laboratory where animals of the region who die of natural causes are preserved for everyone to examine up close. Other activities include hiking, orienteering, mountain biking, camping and fishing. There is also an adventure course with a zip line.