4 Free Things to Do in Kingsport, TN

Sometimes your budget just can’t keep up with your need for fun and exciting things to do, but don’t let money be the reason you stay home. Kingsport offers several free things to do — enough to keep anyone busy all year round. Here are four ideas to get you started.

Enjoy a Weekly Outdoor Wonders Wander (W.O.W.W.)

From March 1 through mid-May, Warriors’ Path State Park will be holding a weekly nature walk for the public. These walks will last about an hour and will be held on Tuesdays at 3 p.m. Each will be led by a park ranger and begin at the Warriors’ Path pool entrance. They could cover park trails, explore a meadow or stream, or focus on specific wildlife. All ages are welcome. If you cannot make one of these walks, Warriors’ Path State Park is still a great place to visit. It boasts ten different hiking trails ranging from easy to moderate difficulty, as well as a biking trail and fishing opportunities.

Have Some Country Fun at the Exchange Place

The Exchange Place is a living history farm that takes you back in time to the 1850s. It is open to the public from April through October. Not all of the festivals held here are free, but a good number are — including the Christmas in the Country events scheduled for December 3, 2016. Another example is Farm Fest 2016, which will be held on July 17 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Come prepared for some old-fashioned family fun, from sack races to hayrides, as well as fresh summer food, farm animals, and nineteenth-century craft projects.

Drive the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail

The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail runs from Kingsport, Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap to Middlesboro, Kentucky. Although officially carved out by Daniel Boone in 1775, the route had been used by Native Americans for hundreds of years. Today, it makes for an excellent driving tour of the area. There are several notable sites along the way, starting with the Netherland Inn in Kingsport. You can find a map of the trail, complete with markers for nearby attractions and other helpful information online.

Attend a SunWatch or StarWatch

Although show tickets cost $4, there are other ways to benefit from the Bays Mountain Planetarium’s presence in Kingsport. Two examples are the seasonal SunWatch and StarWatch programs. You can attend a StarWatch (held at the observatory) on Saturday evenings during March, April, October, and November. In the case of inclement weather, a live tour of the night sky will be held in the planetarium theater instead. SunWatch events, which allow you to safely view the surface of the sun through a filtered telescope, are held on Saturdays and Sundays from March through October at 3 p.m. If conditions are cloudy, SunWatch will be canceled.

Whether you are a lifelong resident of Kingsport or just visiting, these free events and activities are worth checking out. With so many to choose from, there’s no need to stay bored or cooped up inside just because you’re running low on cash.

Image via Pixabay

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