Cloudland Canyon is an Amazing Part of Georgia State Park System

I loved the trip to Cloudland Canyon State Park. My companion looked up from his game of Life on his iPod to say, "This is a pretty drive" on the way there. It really was. We don't have a lot of hills/mountains in the Atlanta area, so the beautiful rolling countryside on Highway 136 was kind of shocking! We stayed in the state park for two nights at site #65. The campground host was so nice to greet us after hours. The gift shop has an amazing collection of books and gifts.

During the middle of the trip we drove on the Lookout Mountain Scenic Highway. It was really a gorgeous drive too. We sneaked in the back way to Chattanooga. It was about 20 minutes from Cloudland. Ruby Falls and the Incline Railroad both looked worth the trip and worthy of exploration, but we arrived too late in the day for the side trips. On the way there, we began listening to Sign of the Beaver, which is a great children's book on tape. Click on my culturedkid blog link to read my review of the story, which I will post shortly.

We took several short hikes from this campground. The first was to check out the canyon. I reminded my son that canyon was like in the word Grand Canyon and we were so lucky to have one in Georgia. The trip down to the two waterfalls is much like the hike in Amicalola Falls State Park. These stairs are grated at cloudland and it took a little coaxing to get the dog to descend. But it was so pretty even without the water flowing. Here is an image from the base of waterfall #1, which is about a mile hike total from the cottages in the east rim campground.

Cloudland Canyon State Park
122 Cloudland Canyon Park Rd.
Rising Fawn , GA 30738

(I am blogging the Georgia state parks in one year. This is park 3/48.)