Explore the Basin
Discover 18,000 square miles of rugged wilderness, beautiful streams and charming towns in the Cumberland River Basin of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Watersheds of the Basin

Lower Cumberland
That said, it doesn’t lack for superlatives. It is home to more surface water and more wetlands than any other watershed in the Cumberland River

Lake Cumberland
Endangered gray bats spend nights foraging for insects over streams and the placid waters of the reservoir. Spectaclecase mussels avoid strong currents beneath the bluffs

Harpeth River
En route to the Cumberland, the Harpeth takes on the Little Harpeth, Big Turnbull Creek, and Jones Creek – all streams (along with the Harpeth

Collins River
Savage Gulf is a majestic canyon in the region, where the waters of the Collins River, Big Creek, and Savage Creek dance between narrow canyon

Upper Cumberland
Rainbow darter and hogsuckers swim amongst the fast creek riffles, and fourtoed salamanders burrow within the mosses of boggy wetlands. Hemlock and magnolia trees can

Obey River
As the Obey flows west, beyond the Cumberland Plateau, it reaches Dale Hollow Lake, a reservoir created to control flooding and provide hydropower by the

Cordell Hull
The watershed is home to three State Scenic Rivers that all flow into Cordell Hull Lake – Roaring River, Blackburn Fork, and Spring Creek –

Red River
The Red is distinctive in many ways. It has less surface water and less forest per square mile than any other watershed in the Cumberland