Paducah/McCracken County, KY

Half Day Beginner Paddle 

Start: Clarks River Boat Launch

End: Downtown Paducah Historic Riverfront

Length: 4.5 miles

Experience: This Tennessee RiverLine experience explores the urban landscape and industrial sublime along the Tennessee’s River’s final miles in Paducah, Kentucky. You will begin your journey on the Clarks River, a tributary of the Tennessee. After paddling a half a mile on the scenic Clarks River, you reach its confluence with the Tennessee, and immediately realize why Paducah is called the crossroads of the inland waterway system. Turning left with the current of the river, you’ll paddle by the operations facilities of many barging companies that are headquartered in the city. On either side of the river you’ll see collections of barges being staged for the next stage of their journey on area rivers, a process called fleeting.

Bear left as you catch your first glimpses of the Ohio River while approaching Livingston Point and Cuba Towhead. You’ll pass Owens Island on your right as you paddle by towboat docking and refitting facilities and one of the river’s few international ports. Perhaps you’ll see a crew embarking on their own river journey. Once you reach the end of Owens Island, you’ve reached mile 0 of the Tennessee River and its confluence with the Ohio. You can disembark at Paducah’s historic river landing where generations of Tennessee RiverLine users wil alsol end their 652-mile journey of a lifetime, or continue on the Ohio River for another 1.25 miles to the Ohio River Boat Launch. Paddlers may also opt to travel around the north side of Owens Island to arrive at Paducah’s waterfront.

This reach of the Tennessee River is typically active with towboat and barge traffic. Always paddle on the river’s edge a safe distance away the main navigation channel marked with red and green buoys. Keep a safe distance away from tow boats in motion or fleeting barges that may shift in the water without warning.

Once you finish your paddle, your experience in Paducah and McCracken County is just beginning! Don’t forget to visit this UNESCO Creative City’s abundance of local shops, restaurants, and museums, as well as its busting downtown, riverfront murals, and Lower Town arts district.

Outfitters: Hoopers Outdoor Center

Restaurants: Artisan Kitchen, Freight House, Gold Rush Cafe, Kirchhoff’s Bakery and Deli, Forever Sweet Creamery, Craving the Curls Rolled Ice Cream, Doe’s Eat Place, Broussard’s, Over/Under, Paducah Beer Werks, Barrel & Bond

Things to Do: “Wall to Wall” Murals on Water Street, Land Between the Lakes, The Carson Center, National Quilt Museum, Lower Town Art District, Inland Waterways Museum, Historic Downtown Shopping District, Hotel Metropolitan, Market House Theatre, William Clark Market House Museum, Paducah Railroad Museum

Fun Facts:

  • Paducah is home to one of the largest quilt shows in America and is knowns as “Quilt City”

  • In 2013, the town was named a City of Crafts and Folk Art by UNESCO

  • Paducah is a designated Bird City USA by the National Audubon Society. The city has a variety of bird habitats, including forests, wetlands, and farmland.

Land Declaration: This Tennessee RiverLine experiences traverses territory once home to Chickasaw, Yuchi, Osage, and Quapaw peoples (source: https://native-land.ca/)

Ecoregion: MISSISSIPPI VALLEY LOESS PLAINS. This ecoregion stretches from near the Ohio River in western Kentucky to Louisiana. It consists primarily of irregular plains, some gently rolling hills, and near the Mississippi River, bluffs. Thick loess is one of the distinguishing characteristics. The bluff hills in the western portion contain soils that are deep, steep, silty, and erosive. Flatter topography is found to the east, and streams tend to have less gradient and more silty substrates than in the Southeastern Plains ecoregion (65). To the east, upland forests dominated by oak, hickory, and both loblolly and shortleaf pine, and to the west on bluffs some mixed and southern mesophytic forests, were the dominant natural vegetation. Agriculture is now the typical land cover in the Kentucky and Tennessee portion of the region, while in Mississippi there is a mosaic of forest and cropland. (source: USEPA)

Physiographic Region: The Coastal Plain province is the flattest all of the physiographic provinces. It stretches over 2,200 miles in length from Cape Cod to the Mexican border and southward another 1,000 miles to the Yucatan Peninsula. The Atlantic plain slopes gently seaward from the inland highlands in a series of terraces. This gentle slope continues far into the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, forming the continental shelf. (source: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/physiographic-provinces.htm)