Cloudland Canyon State Park

This updated review is for the west rim portion of cloudland canyon
Cloudland is such a beautiful park, and that’s evident as soon as you step up along the trail to see the view. While you’ll no doubt tackle the stairs to the two waterfalls and back, I urge you to take on the 5 mile western rim.
The first mile of the trail consists of heavily exposed big tree roots along switch backs and a really nice rock outcrop with a view. You’ll eventually come across a fork and a bridge, which splits up the outer scenic trail, and the inner trail. I suggest taking the inner trail first because I like saving the good stuff for last, and the outer trail is soo good. Either way, miles 2 — 4 are a loop with a mix of non paved, heavily root exposed or rock paths, so whichever way you go, you’ll eventually end up right back at the fork.
So why do I say take the inner trail first? Honestly, because it’s kinda boring by comparison with the outer trail, and I like knowing the best is yet to come on my hikes. By boring, I mean most of the inner trail is in wooded areas, sometimes meandering alongside the camp grounds, sometimes crossing a street, but very few wowable views there.
The outer trail is simply beautiful, offering several different vantage points from the west rim. As a personal note, whenever you see a sign saying «overlook», do yourself a favor and go down that extra bit of trail for breathtaking views of the rock face of the eastern rim as well as the canyon itself, or a small town below. Along the way there are quite a few openings that are perfect to stop for a lunch break and a view too.
There are several signs that list this trail as moderate to strenuous, but I saw several kids on the trail doing just fine, so it’s definitely a trail most people can finish if they take their time.
The 5^th mile of this trail is really the first, as you close the loop and head back out the way you came. Sadly, there are no waterfalls along the west rim trail, but that’s easily fixed by taking the stairs down to the falls after you finish the west rim. Be careful though, getting back up those stairs can be work!
Cloudland canyon remains one of my favorite parks in GA. It takes a little time reaching it from Atlanta, but those views are worth it I think. Please give the west rim a shot if you visit!

I have always been a wanderlust-​y type of person. I enjoy visiting new places, experiencing different culture, and regional cuisines. And for the longest time, I have wanted to go camping with a group of friends. After about two weeks of research (shout out to Jamarcus T.‘s great list that I based a lot of my initial camping locations on before deciding on this one:
), we finally settled on Cloudland Canyon because it looked nice, and it was also within a short drive of Chattanooga.
We arrived after dark on Friday (but before it closed), and parked a short distance from our Pioneer Camp spot (find the review for that here:
) before settling in for the night after eating and catching up a bit. We woke up at staggered time, and ate breakfast. It was interesting (and by interesting, I mean annoying…) that we were there during extremely chilly temperatures, but the subsequent week was when the freak 70 degree weather happened.
So, on to the adventure. We drove in two separate cars to an agreed upon location. For the life of me, I can’t remember where we went, but I want to say the West Rim Loop Trail? Anyways, there was a nature building there, and we wandered around it waiting for everyone else to arrive. Just a step from the building, there were already nice trails. Overall that day, we hiked for about 5 or so hours. Not really a long time, but I think not bad considering we had 10 different people, with different levels of fitness, 10 different degrees of what is considered hiking, and 10 different personalities. We had a good time, so that’s what matters. We were able to hike part of the West Rim Trail, the 2 mile Waterfall Trail, and a portion of the Sitton’s Gulch Trail. Unfortunately, I started getting a migraine that plagued halfway during the day, and I was plagued with a pounding head for every step I took. Which, according to a friend’s FitBit was the equivalent of 70 flights of stairs. Yikes.
That being said, there were plenty of great views throughout the trails, and the waterfalls were really pretty as well. We were visiting in December, so most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees, but the views around the canyon were still spectacular. In fact, we could often see the waterfalls better because they weren’t obscured with trees. It was a nice day trip, and the fact that it was so close to Chattanooga made it, overall, a really fun experience. (Minus the intense migraine that made me take aspirin and a nap for a few hours.) My friends and I bonded, listened to spooky ghost stories, made s’mores, created inside jokes («WHATT?!»), and that made the experience even better. Hopefully, we’ll be adventuring and camping more together.
Oh, and we stayed at the Pioneer Camps, instead of doing traditional camping (like previously mentioned), but I would definitely recommend it for a large group who wants more privacy. The only caveat is that you are «roughing it» to a certain degree. It ended up being about $ 11 per person for two nights, so not a bad deal for privacy and a larger camping space.