Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area
| Frozen Head State Park | |
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The Judge Branch on the west side of Frozen Head
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| Type | Tennessee State Park |
| Location | Wartburg, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 36°07′35″N 84°30′05″W / 36.12644°N 84.50143°WCoordinates: 36°07′35″N 84°30′05″W / 36.12644°N 84.50143°W |
| Area | 24,000 acres (97.12 km2; 37.50 sq mi) |
| Operated by | Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation |
| Open | Year round |
Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area is a state park in Morgan County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park, situated in the Crab Orchard Mountains between the city of Wartburg and the community of Petros, contains some of the highest mountains in Tennessee west of the Blue Ridge.
Frozen Head State Park consists of approximately 24,000 acres (97 km2), all but 330 acres (1.3 km2) of which is classified as a state natural area. The terrain varies between 1,300 ft (400 m) to over 3,000 ft (910 m). with 14 peaks at or over 3,000 feet (910 m). Frozen Head, the park's namesake, is the highest peak at 3,324 feet (1,013 m). The mountain's name comes from its snow-capped appearance in colder months. The park's highest elevations allow for unobstructed views of East Tennessee's three main physiographic features: the Cumberland Plateau, the Tennessee Valley, and across the valley, the Great Smoky Mountains.
The Crab Orchard Mountains rise along the Cumberland Plateau just west of the plateau's Walden Ridge escarpment, north of the Sequatchie Valley, and comprise the southern extreme of the greater Cumberland Mountain range. The mountains are generally composed of Paleozoic sandstones and shales of the Pennsylvanian period, formed roughly 300 million years ago. Although the rocks are much younger than the Precambrian igneous rocks of the Appalachian Mountains to the east, the two mountain systems were both formed during the Appalachian orogeny, when the North American and African plates collided.
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