CAMPNPOST

The third and final installment of this three part series is on The Backcoutry Trail at Cloudland Canyon. This 2.75 mile trail is on the eastern portion of the park and is accessed by one of the park roads.
I left the lookout parking lot and headed up the road marked wildlife viewing area on foot. After passing the Group center, the road to the pool and tennis area and then by the Cloudland Canyon Disc Golf Course, I came to the gravel parking pad for the backcountry trail and the additional backcountry campsites.

The trailhead sign above states an estimated time 2-1/4 hours for hiking the backcountry trail. That really is a bit of a stretch if you ask me. I did the hike taking pictures and walking down all of the individual trails to each campsite stopping to take pictures to give you all a good idea of what to expect when camping here. It took me 35 minutes.

Here is a run down of each site. This may be a little excessive but I have had occasions where I wished someone had done it for me so here ya go:

(Site 1) A decent sized site where the stream wraps around part of it.

(Site 2) Top side of trail away from creek. Larger site.

( Site 3) Private and stream is nearby. One a the longer trails to the campsite.

(Site 4) Nice site but a bit too close to the trail as it wraps around 3 /4 of the site.

(Site 5) The longest trail to the actual campsite off the main trail. Private.

(Site 6) One of the better sites and one of the choices I make when available.

(Site 7) Flat spot at the crest of a hill along the trail. Well away from the other spots.

(Site 8 ) This one has some really good spots for 2 medium/large tents. This site sits across the main trail from 9 so if you have a small group and you want to stick together this would work well.

(Site 9) Only room for a small tent on this one. Nice stream along side though.

(Site 10) Ten is a spacious site that we have stayed at a few times. Trail runs on both sides of the site but woods border it making it plenty nice. So far I have only seen a few campers here while we were camping.

(Site 11) Eleven as you can see sits on the other side of the trail from 10 and is also spacious. These two are the closest sites to the trailhead and again would be great for groups hoping to stay close by. Take a left at the beginning of the trail at this sign to stay at these sites.

All these sites have outhouses within a reasonable distance but not too close.

The trail itself is easy/moderate with limited elevation changes.

From here I headed back out the backcountry parking pad and back down the road to the bottom end of the day use picnic area where my camera ran out of stinkin’ battteries.

From here I looped back around the west rim trail and to the parking area for the primitive camping area and rounding out what was really a nice little day hike.

For more information of Cloudland Canyon State Park, the trail and directions please refer to my previous post on this topic. Please check it out if you haven’t been and if you have tell me what you guys think of it.

With that I will leave you with some of the additional pictures I got. I shot some video but the quality is just not up to par.

Tags: Backcountry Trail, Camping in Georgia, Northwestern Georgia Hiking