Summary:
Chickadee’s porch rockers & built-in deck hammock may derail your itinerary.
This colorful log cabin sits atop Suck Creek Mountain inside Chattanooga, a short drive from downtown.
Explore Talking Water’s wooded trails & creek, grill dinner, & claim your spot by the private firepit. Or have another coffee & reconsider the whole schedule.
Sleeps 4 with a king bed & full-size futon sharing one sleeping space, plus a kitchen, indoor bathroom, & seasonal hot outdoor shower.
The Space:
Come for the woods, stay in the hammock
Chickadee is a colorful little log cabin with a king bed, porch rocking chairs, & a built-in deck hammock that may interfere with your plans to accomplish things.
Make breakfast, head out for an adventure, or settle onto the porch & see where the day goes. It’s comfortable, playful, & easy to make yourself at home.
🛏 Room for your little flock
Chickadee sleeps up to 4 guests:
- A king bed (sleeps 2)
- A full-size futon beside the bed (sleeps 2)
- Indoor hooks for 2 hammocks (hammocks & straps provided)
The king bed & futon share the same sleeping space, so bring people you’re comfortable waking up beside. Bedhead is part of the arrangement.
Hammocks do not increase the cabin’s 4-person guest limit.
🌿 Rock, recline, repeat
The porch rockers are good for coffee, conversation, & watching everyone else get ready. Out on the deck, the built-in hammock offers a compelling reason to leave your afternoon unscheduled.
Grill dinner, pull up a chair by your private firepit, & see how long you can stretch an evening without checking the time.
🚿 Wash off the trail
Chickadee has a full indoor bathroom & a private hot outdoor shower.
After a hike, bike ride, or afternoon at the creek, take your shower outside & enjoy a little more fresh air before calling it a day.
The outdoor shower is unavailable during frost season. The indoor shower is available year-round.
🍳 Breakfast at your own pace
The kitchen has a refrigerator, stove, & cooking supplies, whether you’re making a proper breakfast or reheating yesterday’s excellent decisions. There’s also an outdoor grill.
There’s no dishwasher. We’ll leave the division of labor to your group.
A TV & Wi-Fi are available when you’re ready for some indoor downtime.
🥾 Wander a little farther
Chickadee is one of five cabins in the Songbird Neighborhood at Talking Water, on 82 wooded acres inside Chattanooga.
Head to the shared Songbird Pavilion for a meal, a game, or company around the fire. It has an outdoor kitchen with an electric griddle, cold-water sink, & cabinets, plus picnic tables & a firepit with chairs & benches. The slide, tetherball, & children’s climbing structures are nearby.
Our trails wind through the woods & along the bluff, with a steep mountain trail leading down to Suck Creek. Take your time, look for crawdads, & give yourself a breather before the walk back up. The mountain will still be there when you’re ready.
Shared guest laundry is available during daytime hours outside cabin-cleaning windows.
🌱 A little about the hands behind it
Chickadee was one of our first cabins, opening in July 2023, just over a year after our family started creating Talking Water.
We’re a small family-owned & family-operated business with five cabins. This place is our ongoing passion project, from the handmade details inside to the trails & native plants outside. We live & work here, & there’s usually something growing, getting repaired, or taking shape.
🐾 Four-legged travel companions
Dogs are welcome at Chickadee with prior approval & a pet fee for non-Airbnb bookings.
Dogs must be leashed outdoors & crated inside whenever they are not directly with their owners (crates available upon request).
Our livestock will be working in different areas of the property during your stay. Keep dogs under your control, do not allow them to approach our animals, & please clean up all waste.
🪶 Bring the rest of your people
Planning a reunion, retreat, wedding weekend, corporate getaway, or friend gathering? You can rent all five cabins: Blackbird, Chickadee, Goldfinch, Meadowlark, & Whippoorwill.
Together, the cabins sleep up to 26 guests in beds. Share meals & evenings at the Songbird Pavilion, then head back to your own cabin when you’re ready to call it a night.
The Ceremony Hut & Cob Oven can also be reserved for scenic, earthy gatherings centered on connecting with nature & your people.
Use of the Ceremony Hut or Cob Oven, & hosting events, require advance arrangements & additional fees.
Guest Access:
Chickadee & its immediate outdoor spaces are private to your group during your stay, including:
- The cabin
- Porch with rocking chairs & a deck with a built-in hammock
- Outdoor shower (closed seasonally for frost) & adjacent green space
- Chickadee’s designated parking spaces
Need more parking? Please message us before arrival so we can coordinate.
You’ll also have shared access to:
- The Songbird Pavilion, with an outdoor kitchen, firepit, picnic tables, & seating
- Hiking trails & the steep mountain trail down to Suck Creek
- The slide, tetherball, & children’s climbing structures
- The guest laundry room in the nearby garage (daytime access outside cabin-cleaning windows)
Other cabins may be occupied during your stay. Chat with the neighbors, join a game, or settle into a porch rocker with a book. Be as social as you like!
The Ceremony Hut & Cob Oven can be reserved separately. Use of these spaces, & hosting events, require advance arrangements & additional fees.
The Neighborhood:
Chickadee is one of five cabins in our Songbird Neighborhood. Each cabin has its own private indoor & outdoor spaces, while shared areas offer room for gathering, games, & spending time together.
Talking Water comes with a mountain soundtrack: birds, bugs, frogs, wind in the trees, chickens, & yes, roosters. Nobody has successfully negotiated a later start time with the roosters. You may also hear occasional road noise.
We’re tucked into Chattanooga’s Suck Creek Mountain community & surrounded by some of the area’s best natural spaces:
- 🌲 Prentice Cooper State Forest borders the southern edge of the property.
- 💧 Nearly a mile of Suck Creek runs along the eastern side of our land.
- 🌊 The Tennessee River follows the road at the base of the mountain.
Before our family purchased the property in 2022, much of the land had been logged for decades without much stabilization or replanting. Since then, we’ve been restoring it through native planting, trail work, erosion control, natural building, creative reuse, & a lot of hands-on care.
Talking Water is still evolving. You’ll find wild mountain land, handmade spaces, quirky details, & usually a project or two underway. Our family lives & works here, slowly bringing the property back to life.
Getting Around:
We’re tucked into the mountains, but still surprisingly close to Chattanooga. A car is strongly recommended, and drive times can vary with traffic.
Under 10 minutes:
- Prentice Cooper State Forest
- Suck Creek swimming holes & outdoor recreation
- Tennessee River access
- Aldi, restaurants, and coffee
Under 20 minutes:
- Downtown Chattanooga riverfront
- Tennessee Aquarium
- Creative Discovery Museum
- Coolidge Park & North Shore
- Countless downtown restaurants, breweries, shops, & attractions *Chattanooga's restaurant scene is on point!
- Numerous climbing, mountain biking, hiking, & paddling spots
Under 30 minutes:
- Ruby Falls
- Rock City Gardens
- Incline Railway
- Chattanooga Zoo
- Big Soddy Gulf
- Erlanger Park / Chattanooga Lookouts
The drive to Talking Water follows the Tennessee River and climbs Suck Creek Mountain, so you get the feeling of a real mountain getaway without giving up easy access to Chattanooga.
Interaction with Guests:
Talking Water is a family-owned and operated evolving dream fulfillment. Our family is onsite daily caring for the land, animals, cabins, trails, gardens, and ongoing construction projects. We are not a cult or your typical dirty hippies, but we are usually dirty due to one project or another :)
You will see three generations of our family working, gardening, building, tending animals, and maintaining the property during your stay. We will not approach you (we respect your privacy), but are happy to chat if you reach out to us!
We lead periodically earthbuilding workshops here, and you’ll see cordwood, cob, hempcrete, plaster, stonework, and other natural building examples throughout the property. Some spaces are finished, some are evolving, and all of it is handbuilt with a lot of love.
We have brush-clearing goats, chickens who lay fresh eggs, and working cats who help control rodent populations. These animals are part of the life of the retreat, so guests should expect a real, active, nature-based property, not a sterile rental tucked away from everything.
Guest pets must remain leashed when outdoors, crated when not beside their owners indoors (each cabin is built with many wood and plaster details), and fully under control of their owners at all times.
