Hiking Cloudland Canyon State Park: Georgia's Hidden Gem

Northwest Georgia has been hiding a secret! They have a beautiful park called Cloudland Canyon State Park that you are definitely going to want to visit. Trust me!

Whether it’s the dozens of miles of hiking trails, the stunning waterfalls, or the leave-you-in-awe kind of views, this state park is worth every minute of your drive.

Come along as I tell you about, and show you, my trip to Cloudland Canyon in Rising Fawn, Georgia.

Important Links

Cloudland Canyon State Park website

Cloudland Canyon State Park Camping – Reserve Here!

State Park Map

State Park Trail Map

Hiking Backpack Checklist FREEBIE

Cloudland Canyon State Park Camping – My post here!

Location

30 minutes south of Chattanooga, TN and 2 hours north of Atlanta, GA, this stunning state park is the perfect weekend getaway for anyone near where the state lines of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia converge.

Cloudland Canyon State Park has so much to offer! From hiking to biking to horseback riding and of course, camping! Whether you are looking for a day trip, weekend getaway or a week in a Yurt, this state park has it all.

The official address is

122 Cloudland Canyon Park Road Rising Fawn, GA 30738

But we all know you can just type in Cloudland Canyon State Park into your favorite map app (Apple, Google, Waze) and it’ll take you right where you need to go.

History

Cloudland Canyon was declared a state park in 1938 when Georgia began buying land from private owners. Two of these private owners were the Mathews family and the McCaig family who still live in this area of northwest Georgia today.

Although, it wasn’t originally called Cloudland Canyon. This state park started out as Sitton Gulch State Park (named after the Sitton Gulch Creek that formed this canyon) before being changed years later to Cloudland Canyon State Park. In the park you will still find a trail called Sitton’s Gulch Trail that sort of pays homage to the original name.

When founded, the park started with 1,924 acres of land. Cloudland Canyon has nearly doubled in size to 3,485 acres via land acquisitions as new properties have become available. Whether the state park plans to expand further in the future is to be determined. Regardless, no one can argue the beauty of Cloudland Canyon State Park.

But let’s get into planning the trip! How much time should you spend in this gorgeous place?

Time to Spend Here

As usual it is hard to tell you exactly how much time to spend here. But here is my advice.

If you are looking to just see the views and maybe walk to see the famous overlook, then you won’t need more than a few hours at this park. I’ll also say that you’re missing out on some awesome hiking, but you do you!

If you are like us and want to hike around the canyon rim (West Rim Trail) and see the plunge waterfalls in Cloudland Canyon State Park, then you’ll want to spend a weekend here. Our weekend itinerary is below. Feel free to copy it or to adapt it and make your own.

And finally, if you are looking to hike all, or most, of the trails and enjoy a peaceful place in north Georgia, then you could stay for a week or more here. The quiet woods, stunning waterfalls, awe-inspiring canyon and just overall peace surrounding this place will definitely help you to get away from the insanity of life.

But again, this is for you to decide!

Our Itinerary is below, so feel free to copy it, modify it, or ignore it and do your own thing. Regardless, Cloudland Canyon State Park is definitely worth seeing if you’re anywhere nearby!

Our Itinerary

Friday: Drive from home to Cloudland Canyon State Park (Rising Fawn, Georgia). Walked into our campsite, set up our tent, ate dinner and went to bed. Oh, and of course a massive storm blew in and we barely slept, but that’s just normal camping things.

Saturday: Woke up, ate breakfast, hit the trails. We hiked the West Rim Loop Trail and the Waterfalls Trail. We came back, had a fire, ate some delicious grilled chicken sandwiches, and enjoyed some quiet time in the woods.

Sunday: Had breakfast and packed up camp. Since we had the walk-in campsite, we had to walk all of our stuff out to the truck and this is when we decided to be very careful about what sort of walk-in campsite we would book in the future. We walked the Overlook Trail to see the famous views of this state park. Finally, we headed home to end the weekend.

This weekend warrior mindset might feel rushed for some of you who want to see more of this amazing state park. With all their hiking and camping options, you just might want to stay a little bit longer. But don’t take my word for it! Let’s discuss the campground.

Camping in Cloudland Canyon State Park

With 140 camping and glamping options, you have plenty of choices in Cloudland Canyon State Park! This is a quick overview of camping here. For a more detailed post of our stay and the various campsites to choose from, check out my other post Cloudland Canyon State Park Camping here.

For those campers who like to hike into your camping location, there are 13 backcountry sites.

Or the campers who prefer primitive tent camping, there are 30 walk-in sites. This is the option we chose because of how cheap it is. But be warned, you are truly walking in your gear, so pack light!

Then there are those recreational vehicle campers, better known as RVs or Travel Trailers. There are 72 back-in and pull-through sites that were just upgraded not too long ago. So enjoy that electricity and water!

And for our glampers, there are 10 yurt options and 16 cottages to choose from. Who says camping can’t be luxurious!?

Whatever your camping vibe, there is something for everyone and every price range. If you want more information about the camping situation and our camping experience, jump on over to my post about Cloudland Canyon State Park Camping!

Trails

Overlook Trail – 1 mile out and back – Easy
West Rim Loop Trail – 5 miles round trip – Moderately Strenuous: Elevation Gain 750 ft
Waterfalls Trail – 2 miles round trip – Strenuous: Elevation Gain 500 ft.
Sitton’s Gulch Trail – 6 miles round trip – Strenuous: Elevation Gain 1000 ft
Two Mile Backcountry Loop – 2 miles round trip – Moderate: Elevation Gain 220 ft
Meadowlands Trail – 1 mile round trip – Moderate
5 Points Recreation Area – 10 mile round trip – Moderate: Elevation Gain 800 ft
Cloudland Connector Trail – 7 miles – Hard: Elevation Gain 560 ft.

Our Hikes

While camping in Cloudland Canyon State Park, we hiked 3 of their many trails. We did 2 of those trails on Saturday and then the short, but stunning, overlook trail on Sunday morning.

Let’s jump right into it!

West Rim Loop Trail – 5 miles: Elevation Gain 750 feet

The West Rim Loop Trail appears yellow on the Cloudland Canyon State Park map – screen shot here.

This trail runs right through the walk-in campground. And because this is where we were camping, we simply put on our boots and started right on the trail.

I know what you’re thinking, “but I want to do this hike and I’m NOT staying in the walk-in campground. What now?”

Day Hike Parking Option

If you are staying in the cabins, yurts, or RV/Camper section of the park, this trail runs right by where you are staying. So you can pick it up anywhere and just follow the loop.

But if you are not staying in the park, and just want to hike this trail for the day, there is a large parking lot by the Interpretive Center. This is where the trailhead actually is.

Back to Our Hike

Anyway, we laced up our boots and started north on the loop from our campground. We crossed the road that runs through the park and continued on the trail.

Once the trail takes a turn, you are hiking parallel to the canyon and this is just the beginning of the views!

The trail follows the curve of the canyon and a metal fence runs the length of this part of the trail. Ya know, so people don’t literally fall off a cliff.

You will then come to an overlook where you can see directly across the canyon and the point that the canyon comes to in the middle. It’s truly stunning, but watch your step! There are a couple sections that don’t have fencing, so don’t be stupid.

Once you leave the canyon’s edge, you will begin to loop around and head back to the trailhead.

You will cross a very pretty stream and can enjoy the cool temperatures of the woods. When we were there, the Rhododendron were showing off and this part of the trail was stunning!

After passing the yurts, that are very close to the trail, we came to a fork in the trail. Options Are: to continue to the trailhead and parking lot, or to head down to the waterfalls. I hope you know what we chose!

Waterfalls Trail – 2 miles round trip – Strenuous: Elevation Gain 500 ft.

We continued to the waterfalls! Yes there are two stunning plunge waterfalls along with trail, so you definitely get your monies worth here!

But BE WARNED: there are hundreds of stairs down into the canyon to see these falls.

And while the stairs are optional down to the falls, they are not optional on the way back up.

The trail starts off pretty flat and a wooden handrail guides you under some impressive rock formations, almost to the point of cave-like. But then it happens.

You hit the stairs.

And down, down, down you go.

At the bottom of those set of stairs, you will see a sign to either Cherokee Falls or Hemlock Falls. We did both, but first we did headed to Cherokee Falls

Cherokee Falls

This waterfall is very close to the sign, which means that it’s definitely more popular and more crowds will be here. I was able to snag this photo by being patient and waiting for a million families to move.

We hung around here a little while to capture more shots and to just enjoy the serenity of the falls and peaceful stream.

Then we headed back the way we came and continued towards Hemlock Falls.

Hemlock Falls

Now, this trail is not as close to the signage as Cherokee is. You hike a little ways away from the sign before continuing down more stairs. Yup, more stairs! And making a hard left turn towards the other falls.

If you are looking for an additional trail, right before Hemlock Falls is where the Sitton’s Gulch Trail begins. And while we didn’t do this trail, I’ve heard it is very peaceful as you follow the stream. If we ever go back to Cloudland Canyon, I definitely want to hike this trail.

Finally, come up to an overlook, a boardwalk sort of platform where you can view Hemlock Falls.

We found this set of falls to be less impressive. Primarily because we couldn’t get very close to it, unless you left the viewing platform. Either way, it’s still pretty, but then the most dreaded thing happens.

You guessed it! You have to go BACK up the stairs you came down.

Ascent

Up and up you climb as your heart rate picks up and you begin to sweat and your lungs gasp for air.

Since this was one of our first hikes of the year, we took a couple breaks on the way up.

Many people were taking breaks and we’d pass them, then when we took a break, they would pass us. After repeating this action several times, you finally make it back to the waterfall signage.

You then have one last set of stairs to climb up before getting back to the flat part of the trail again. Don’t worry, you’re getting a great calf workout in!

Once back to the waterfall trail and west rim loop intersection, you can either head back to the parking lot at the trailhead, or head back to your campsite.

Back to the campsite we went. A total of 7 miles was hiked that day and despite our feet hurting from our opening hike, we enjoyed every second of it!

Overlook Trail – 1 mile out and back – Easy

Sunday morning rolled around and we decided that after we packed up, we would do one more hike. Admittedly, this isn’t much of a hike and more of a walk. For reference, I literally did this trail in my Birkenstock sandals if you are wondering how hard this is.

This trail is mostly paved, until it isn’t and then there are a few rocky stairs for you to descend before you reach the ultimate overlook.

The canyon is both rugged and lush as the trees cover the canyon floor. Obviously this isn’t the country’s most inspiring canyon, but it still felt pretty remarkable to stand on the edge of a cliff in northern Georgia.

Conclusion

Georgia’s hidden gem, and arguably one of the most stunning views in Georgia, has been hiding in Cloudland Canyon State Park since 1938.

My husband and I enjoyed the well-kept trails and the privacy of the walk-in campground in Cloudland Canyon State Park. We stayed for a weekend, but several days could easily be spent here hiking or enjoying the landscape.

Whether you are looking for a weekend getaway, a day hike, or a week-long luxury stay in a cabin, Cloudland has it all! Choose your own adventure in one of Georgia’s State Parks.

And as always, feel free to reach out about hiking or camping here anytime at averagewildexperience@gmail.com

Happy Hiking!

Hiking Cloudland Canyon State Park: Georgia’s Hidden Gem