The Bee Cliff is a prominent northeast Tennessee geological limestone feature with high caves that overlooks the Watauga River and the Siam community of Carter County, Tennessee.
Bee Cliff is located in northeastern Tennessee at 36°21′07″N82°08′11″W / 36.35194°N 82.13639°W 36.351944° North, -82.136389° West.
The lower face of the Bee Cliff is across and immediately above the Watauga River from Wilbur Dam Road.
The summit of the Bee Cliff is located off Blue Springs Road across the Watauga River from the Wilbur Dam Road.
The elevation at the Bee Cliff summit is 1,968 feet (600 m).
By travel afloat on the Watauga River, the Bee Cliff is located approximately 10 to 15 minutes downstream from the Tennessee Valley Authority Wilbur and Watauga dams and approximately one hour and forty-five minutes upstream of the city of Elizabethton, Tennessee.
For whitewater rafting and kayaking on the Watauga River, the most popular Carter County "put-in" for whitewater rafting is found immediately downstream of the Wilbur Dam and the most popular "take-out" is found approximately 2 to 2½ hours downstream (depending upon the volume of the reservoir release and other factors) at the Blackbottom riverside portion of the linear trail in Elizabethton. While floating downstream "straight shot" on the Watauga River, you can reference several local landmarks in order to estimate your length of time and distance on the river to Elizabethton:
The distance afloat from the put-in at Wilbur Dam to the Blackbottom take-out is approximately seven miles (11 km).
Immediately before the Bee Cliff is an approximately 150 yard stretch of Class I and Class II whitewater rapids on the Watauga River known locally as the Bee Cliff Rapids (although some North Carolina river guides mistakenly refer to this run as the Anaconda Rapids [1] ). The Bee Cliff Rapids are approximately 15 to 20 minutes downstream of the TVA Wilbur Dam "put-in" or launch.
On the left-hand (port) downstream side of the Bee Cliff Rapids (and on the opposite side of the Watauga River from the Bee Cliff) is a private, wooded area with trails --- utilized by commercial rating companies with paid landing permit --- running parallel with and further downstream from the Bee Cliff Rapids. Locals also refer to this particular wooded section of the Watauga River as "Bee Cliff'.
The international scale of river difficulty classification of these rapids at the Bee Cliff are largely dependent upon the scheduled release of impounded reservoir water from behind the Tennessee Valley Authority Wilbur and Watauga Dams. TVA runs a summer release schedule that frequently provides considerably faster water, especially on Saturdays, for what local river guides refer to as "Big Water Saturday". This means that the Bee Cliff Rapids and the rest of the Watauga River can approach higher-end Class II and Class III (especially when the TVA is also releasing water over the Wilbur Dam spillways).
There are several minor water hazards at the Bee Cliff Rapids that paddlers should keep in mind:
Whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing, fly fishing, and angling with fishing reels are all popular recreation activities pursued at the Bee Cliff. Rainbow trout, brown trout, and striped bass are all caught in the Watauga River.
The Watauga River downstream of the TVA dams draws commercial rafting outfitters from both northeast Tennessee and western North Carolina during the summer months and commercial fishing guides throughout the year.The picturesque Class II+ Bee Cliff Rapids on the Watauga River (also referred to the "Anaconda Rapids" by some North Carolina-based rafting companies) are found downstream between Wilbur Dam and the Siam Bridge, southeast of Elizabethton, Tennessee. [2]
For commercial whitewater rafting and kayaking on the Watauga River, the most popular Carter County "put-in" for is immediately downstream of the TVA Wilbur Dam, and the most popular "take-out" is 2 to 2½ hours downstream (depending upon the volume of the reservoir release and other factors) at the Blackbottom riverside portion of the city linear trail park in Elizabethton.
The distance afloat for paddlers from the put-in at Wilbur Dam to the Blackbottom take-out is approximately seven miles with landmarks along the Watauga River providing good estimate of time and distance traveled.
| Wilbur Dam to Bee Cliff Rapids | - 15 minutes |
| Wilbur Dam to Siam Bridge | - 45 minutes |
| Wilbur Dam to Hunter Bridge (TWRA put-in/take out) | - 75 minutes |
| Wilbur Dam to Gilbert Peters Bridge at US 19-E in Elizabethton | - 105 minutes |
| Wilbur Dam to Bristol Bridge in Elizabethton | - 135 minutes |
The Watauga also has a section of Class IV-V whitewater popular with expert kayakers, upstream of Watauga Lake. [3] This section requires significant rainfall to bring it up to runnable levels. It features continuous steep boulder bed rapids dropping up to 150 feet per mile (28 m/km), and several falls and ledges only runnable by expert paddlers.
The Tennessee Valley Authority maintains a self-service public campground just minutes upstream of the Bee Cliff. Amenities and recreational opportunities at the TVA Watauga Dam Tailwater Campground include 29 camp sites with electric hookups, rest rooms with heated showers and flush toilets, dump station, public phone, picnic tables and grills, canoe access, boat ramps above and below dam, lake and river fishing, hiking trail, walking trail, wildlife viewing area, birdwatching. [4]
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) regulates flow of the Watauga River by scheduling the release of deep, impounded reservoir waters from behind both the TVA Watauga Dam and the TVA Wilbur Dam. As a result, the summer temperature of the Watauga River at the Bee Cliff is approximately 52–53°F(11–12°C). The Watauga River is generally comfortable for kayaking, canoeing, and rafting during the summer months, but care must be taken to prevent hypothermia by prolonged exposure to the cold river water.
As TVA also guarantees a minimum release schedule during the summer season for riverine recreation below the TVA Wilbur Dam, the Watauga River will draw commercial whitewater rafting companies from distant rivers ---such as the Nolichucky River running through Erwin, Tennessee in Unicoi County [5] --- when lack of adequate summer rain fall will not allow for rafting trips on these naturally flowing rivers during seasonal droughts.
Climate of the Bee Cliff at Elizabethton, Tennessee | |||||||||||||
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg °F(°C) | 34.0°F1.1°C | 37.4°F3.0°C | 47.2°F8.4°C | 55.2°F12.9°C | 63.4°F17.4°C | 71.1°F21.7°C | 74.4°F23.6°C | 73.6°F23.1°C | 67.9°F19.9°C | 56.7°F13.7°C | 47.0°F8.3°C | 38.2°F3.4°C | 55.5°F13.1°C |
| Avg high °F(°C) | 43.7°F6.5°C | 48.0°F8.9°C | 58.9°F14.9°C | 67.4°F19.7°C | 75.2°F24.0°C | 82.2°F27.9°C | 84.6°F29.2°C | 84.1°F28.9°C | 79.1°F26.2°C | 69.1°F20.6°C | 58.2°F14.6°C | 48.1°F8.9°C | 66.6°F19.2°C |
| Avg low °F(°C) | 24.3°F -4.3°C | 26.8°F -2.9°C | 35.4°F1.9°C | 43.0°F6.1°C | 51.6°F10.9°C | 59.9°F15.5°C | 64.1°F17.8°C | 63.1°F17.3°C | 56.6°F13.7°C | 44.2°F6.8°C | 35.9°F2.2°C | 28.2°F-2.1°C | 44.4°F6.9°C |
| Rain (inches) | 3.2 in. | 3.4 in. | 3.7 in. | 3.3 in. | 3.8 in. | 3.5 in. | 4.3 in. | 3.2 in. | 3.3 in. | 2.6 in. | 2.9 in. | 3.4 in. | 40.7 in. |
| Snow (inches) | 5.2 in. | 4.2 in. | 2.3 in. | 0.4 in. | 0.05 in. | 0.05 in. | 0.0 in. | 0.0 in. | 0.05 in. | 0.0 in. | 0.9 in. | 2.6 in. | 15.6 in. |
Sources for Bee Cliff at Elizabethton (Bristol-Johnson City, Tennessee) climate statistics: climate-zone.com' [6] | |||||||||||||
During 1989, many scenes from the Chuck Norris action film Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection were filmed at the Bee Cliff and other Carter County sites:
Elizabethton is a city in, and the county seat of Carter County, Tennessee, United States. Elizabethton is the historical site of the first independent American government located west of both the Eastern Continental Divide and the original Thirteen Colonies.
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The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are the names in use for a single 93-mile-long (150 km) river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk County, Tennessee, near the town of Benton. Three power generating dams are operated along it.
The Watauga River is a large stream of western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It is 78.5 miles (126.3 km) long with its headwaters in Linville Gap to the South Fork Holston River at Boone Lake.
The Doe River is a tributary of the Watauga River in northeast Tennessee in the United States. The river forms in Carter County near the North Carolina line, just south of Roan Mountain State Park, and flows to Elizabethton.
The Nolichucky River is a 115-mile (185 km) river that flows through western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the southeastern United States. Traversing the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the river's watershed includes some of the highest mountains in the Appalachians, including Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, the highest point in the eastern United States. The river is a tributary of the French Broad River and is impounded by Nolichucky Dam near Greeneville, Tennessee.
The Hiwassee River originates from a spring on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee River a few miles west of what is now State Route 58 in Meigs County, Tennessee. The river is about 147 miles (237 km) long.
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An artificial whitewater course (AWWC) is a site for whitewater canoeing, whitewater kayaking, whitewater racing, whitewater rafting, playboating and slalom canoeing with artificially generated rapids.
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Great Falls Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Caney Fork, straddling the county line between White County and Warren County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the only dam outside the Tennessee River watershed owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The dam impounds the 1,830-acre (740 ha) Great Falls Lake, and its tailwaters feed into Center Hill Lake. The completion of Great Falls Dam in late 1916 was an engineering triumph, marking the first successful attempt to impound the volatile and flood-prone Caney Fork. The dam is also notable for its design, utilizing a mostly underground conduit to carry water from the reservoir via a tributary to the Power House 0.75 miles (1.21 km) downstream from the dam.
State Route 67 is a state-maintained highway in northeastern Tennessee, including a four-lane divided highway segments in both Washington County and Carter County, and part of a significant two-lane segment passing over the Butler Bridge some 80 feet (24 m) above the TVA Watauga Reservoir near Butler in Johnson County, Tennessee.
Watauga Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the Watauga River in Carter County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1940s as part of efforts to control flooding in the Tennessee River watershed. At 318 feet (97 m), Watauga is the second-highest dam in the TVA river and reservoir system, and at the time of its completion was one of the highest earth-and-rock dams in the United States. The dam impounds the TVA Watauga Reservoir of 6,430 acres (2,600 ha), and its tailwaters feed into Wilbur Lake.
Ocoee Dam Number 2 is a hydroelectric dam on the Ocoee River in Polk County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The dam impounds the Ocoee No. 2 Reservoir and is one of three dams on the Toccoa/Ocoee River owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It was completed in 1913.
South Holston Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the South Fork Holston River in Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the uppermost of three dams on the South Fork Holston owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1940s as part of efforts to control flooding in the Tennessee River watershed. On October 21, 1950 the valve gate closed and water began backing up to create South Holston Reservoir. Work began on the dam in December 1941, but in November 1942, the War Production Board requested that the operation be suspended because of a shortage of critical materials. Work did not resume until July 1, 1947. The dam now impounds the South Holston Lake of 7,550 acres (3,060 ha), which extends northeastward across the Tennessee-Virginia state line.
Wilbur Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Watauga River in Carter County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of two dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The dam impounds Wilbur Lake, which extends for about 3 miles (4.8 km) up the Watauga to the base of Watauga Dam. Wilbur Dam was completed in 1912 making it the second oldest dam in the TVA system behind Ocoee Dam No. 1. Wilbur Dam was one of the first major hydroelectric projects in Tennessee, and remains one of the oldest dams in the TVA system.
Fort Patrick Henry Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the South Fork Holston River within the city of Kingsport, in Sullivan County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the lowermost of three dams on the South Fork Holston owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1950s to take advantage of the hydroelectric potential created by the regulation of river flow with the completion of Watauga Dam, South Holston Dam, and Boone Dam further upstream in preceding years. The dam impounds the 872-acre (353 ha) Fort Patrick Henry Lake. While originally built for hydroelectric generation, the dam now plays an important role in the regulation of water flow and water temperature for the John Sevier Fossil Plant and other industrial plants downstream. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
The Ocoee Whitewater Center, near Ducktown, Tennessee, United States, was the canoe slalom venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and is the only in-river course to be used for Olympic slalom competition. A 1,640 foot stretch of the Upper Ocoee River was narrowed by two-thirds to create the drops and eddies needed for a slalom course. Today, the course is watered only on summer weekends, 34 days a year, for use by guided rafts and private boaters. When the river has water, 24 commercial rafting companies take more than 750 raft passengers through the course each day.
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