Jacks River Trail - Beech Bottom to Alaculsey Valley
The downstream half of the Jacks River, twenty-two crossings through the lower gorge.
- Distance
- 8.3 mi one way
- Elevation gain
- Not recorded
- Trail type
- Out & Back
- Difficulty
- Strenuous
- Crossings
- 22 crossings
- Best season
- Summer and early fall only, when the river runs low.
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
This is the lower run, and the river is the trail more than the trail is. Twenty-two crossings in a little over eight miles means wet feet from the first hour and a pace set by the water rather than by your legs. The gorge walls close in, the pools go green and deep, and the whole corridor stays cool on days when the ridges above are baking.
Do not attempt this after heavy rain. The crossings that read as knee-deep in August become genuinely dangerous in March, and there is no bailout for miles once you are committed.
This is also about as far from a road as it is possible to get in the Cohuttas. The full Jacks River Trail runs nearly seventeen miles between Dally Gap and the Alaculsy Valley trailhead, which puts the middle of this stretch about as deep into wilderness as the Southeast gets.
Marquee feature
Twenty-two river crossings through the lower gorge
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 MapsLoops that use this trail
- Rice Camp and Horseshoe Bend
12.0 mile loop
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