Obed Wild and Scenic River protects 45 miles of high-quality free-flowing streams on the northern Cumberland Plateau of east Tennessee. The unit covers four waterways - the Obed River itself, Clear Creek, Daddys Creek, and the upper Emory River - and was designated in 1976 under the original 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. At just over 5,000 acres of federal and state land combined, the Obed is one of the smaller NPS units, but it punches well above its size on two fronts: whitewater paddling and rock climbing. The geography that defines the Obed is the gorge-and-plateau pattern of the Cumberland tableland. The surrounding country is rolling and agricultural; the streams have cut 500-foot gorges straight down through Pennsylvanian sandstone and conglomerate of the Crab Orchard Mountain Formation. Because the system has no meaningful impoundments upstream, flow is entirely rainfall-dominated and flashes up and down quickly with storms. The whitewater season runs roughly November through May when winter and spring rain keep the streams running, and paddling runs Class II to IV across the four segments - challenging technical water in a remote, scenic setting with limited escape options once committed. The sandstone walls of those gorges carry the second draw. The Obed is regarded as one of the premier climbing destinations in the Southeast, with dozens of routes up to 200 feet long on clean sandstone. Lillys Bluff, Y-12 Wall, North Clear Creek, and Rock Garden are among the named crags. Climbers and paddlers often pass within view of each other, with boats working the rapids below climbers on the walls above. The park also protects the vast majority of the remaining Cumberland river scour prairie habitat - a globally imperiled plant community of which fewer than 500 acres remain - and provides high-quality habitat for 52 native fish species, eight freshwater mussels, and 13 species of crayfish, several of them federally listed. Access to the Obed is constrained by the plateau's geography. Only a few bridges cross the gorges, with primary developed access at Nemo Bridge near the small town of Wartburg, where the park visitor center is located. The rest of the river is reached via the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area (managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency) or unmarked access points that require local knowledge. The Obed is also an International Dark Sky Park, another consequence of its rural plateau setting. It is administered jointly with Big South Fork NRRA.