Hickory Creek Trail
Nearly ten miles one way through quiet west side timber to the river, in two sections.
- Distance
- 9.7 mi one way
- Elevation gain
- Not recorded
- Trail type
- Out & Back
- Difficulty
- Strenuous
- Crossings
- No crossings recorded
- Best season
- Spring through fall.
Wilderness status
Inside Cohutta Wilderness
Bicycles
Bicycles are prohibited on this trail. Mechanized transport, including mountain bikes, is banned in designated wilderness under federal law by the Wilderness Act of 1964. This is enforced by the Forest Service. Do not ride here.
The trail
Hickory Creek is one of the long ones and it does not get the traffic the Jacks River corridor does. The trail works east through mixed hardwood on the west flank of the wilderness, gaining and losing enough to make the mileage feel honest, before dropping to the Conasauga.
The trail runs in two sections. The East section covers about six and a half miles and the West section about three and two tenths. The West section trailhead, where the trail ends off FS 630, is the easiest way to reach the Conasauga River from a road. The Forest Service map lists the trail at 8.6 miles because it counts only wilderness miles, and the first mile of the East section lies outside the boundary in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Solitude is the reason to walk it. On a weekday you can go the whole distance without seeing anyone, which is not something you can say about much of this range in October.
Marquee feature
Long west side approach to the Conasauga
Getting there
Forest Service roads to the Cohutta trailheads are gravel, seasonally gated, and often without cell service. Download directions before you leave pavement.
Access roads and winter closures
Open trailhead in Google Maps
Stay near the trailheads
Sherpa Camp — a cabin at the edge of the wilderness.
The drive in from Atlanta or Chattanooga is long enough that most people are better off sleeping near the gate than starting at 4 a.m. Sherpa Camp is a small cabin on Holly Creek, on the western edge of the Cohutta Wilderness, about 25 minutes from Ellijay. It sleeps five, with a covered porch, a firepit, and a creek. Cell service ends before you get there.
See Sherpa Camp