Cloudland Canyon - See Rock City

Cloudland Canyon, Rising Fawn, GA

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We arrived at Cloudland Canyon State Park, Rising Fawn, GA around noon. The park is located on the western edge of Lookout Mountain. We have a nice pull-thru site. There are too many trees to get satellite but we have good internet and phone signals.

Cloudland offers several hiking trails. There are two waterfalls on site but due to the drought neither one has water. We opted to take the West Rim Loop Trail. There are gorgeous overlooks into the canyon. It was in the low 70’s and we had a nice breeze for a good part of the walk. From one of the overlooks you could look down on the town of Trenton and Lookout Valley, 1,200 feet below. Buddy found a rock that looked like a hatchet head. (See Pic) Our little trek ended up being 6 miles! Buddy made delicious steaks for dinner. We slept pretty well that night – but you would not believe how loud the Katie-dids are here. They are louder than the AC.

Buddy told me when he was little he went to Rock City and as he recalled he thought it was pretty cool. It was less then 20 miles away, so we set off to “See Rock City”. I was excited because I really wanted a birdhouse. (See Pic) According to the brochure, in 1928 Frieda Carter spent four years forging a path through the wilderness and among the rock formations with only a string to mark her trail. Garnet Carter introduced her unique gardens to the public as Rock City Gardens in 1932. In 1936 Mr. Carter began his famous barn roof advertising campaign to lure vacationers from the highways. By the 1950’s Clark Byers had painted “SEE ROCK CITY” on 900 barns roofs. To my disappointment, the bird houses are made in, you guessed it, China!

On the way back from Rock City we stopped by a place where people were hang gliding. It looked like fun but Buddy said “No Way”! The camp host told us that some lady decided to hang glide off the west rim (our camping area) without a hang glider just a couple of weeks ago. One of the deputies that went down to retrieve her body had to be evacuated due to yellow jacket stings!

We will be leaving in the morning (Monday) for Bankhead National Forest in AL.