Jacks River Trail – Dally Gap to Beech Bottom
The upper half of the Jacks River corridor, twenty crossings and the falls.
- Distance
- 8.5 mi one way
- Elevation gain
- Not recorded
- Trail type
- Out & Back
- Difficulty
- Strenuous
- Crossings
- 20 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
From Dally Gap the trail drops to the river and then commits to it, crossing twenty times in eight and a half miles on the way down to Beech Bottom. This is the section people mean when they talk about the Jacks River, and it holds the falls.
The walking is slow by design. You will spend the day moving between gravel bars, ankle deep in cold water, watching for the next blaze on the opposite bank. Trout hold in the deeper runs and the hemlock shade never quite lifts.
None of this water has been stocked since the Cohutta became a wilderness in 1975. Every trout in the river, wild rainbow and brown from the headwaters down, got here on its own or is descended from something that did, which is part of why anglers treat this water differently than the stocked streams outside the boundary.
Marquee feature
Jacks River Falls, twenty crossings
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
- East Cowpen, Hickory Ridge, and Rice Camp
12.1 mile loop
Hickory Ridge was closed by Forest Service order with Rough Ridge. Confirm it has reopened before planning this loop.
- Hemp Top and Penitentiary Branch
13.0 mile loop
- East Cowpen, Hickory Ridge, Jacks River, and Rough Ridge
15.9 mile loop
Not currently walkable. Rough Ridge is closed by the Forest Service, and Hickory Ridge was closed with it.
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