Rough Creek Trail

A rough, overgrown connector between Big Frog Trail and Licklog Ridge, not maintained to the same standard as the rest.

Layered ridge line of the Cohutta Wilderness. A photo specific to this trail is coming soon.

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This is a reference photo, not this trail. Have a photo of it? Post it in the Cohutta Wilderness Facebook group and it may end up here.

Distance: 3 mi one way
Elevation gain: Not recorded
Trail type: Point to Point
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Crossings: Multiple crossings
Best season: Late fall through early spring, when overgrowth is down

Wilderness status

Inside Big Frog 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

Rough Creek connects Big Frog Trail to Licklog Ridge Trail through a valley, with several stream crossings along the way. Older trip reports describe it as poorly maintained, choked with downed trees and heavy overgrowth, but a more current trail guide rates it well maintained and only easy to moderate. Conditions on a connector like this can swing between visits, so treat this as a trail to check on rather than assume either way.

Budget a little extra time regardless, and expect wet feet at the crossings.

Marquee feature

A rough, lightly maintained connector between Big Frog Trail and Licklog Ridge

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

Watershed

Big Frog

Big Frog Wilderness picks up where the Cohutta leaves off, across the Tennessee line, and every serious guide to this range has always treated the two as one mountain rather than two. Water here drains toward the Ocoee River, by way of Rough Creek, Big Creek, and their forks, a different river system than the Coosa basin the rest of the Cohuttas feed. Part of Big Frog Mountain itself sits back across the Georgia line.

Nearby trails in this watershed

Big Frog Trail
5.5 mi one way | Strenuous
Licklog Ridge Trail
5.9 mi one way | Strenuous
Wolf Ridge Trail
2.7 mi one way | Strenuous
Grassy Gap Trail
5 mi one way | Moderate
Big Creek Trail
4.2 mi one way | Moderate
Fork Ridge Trail
2 mi one way | Moderate
West Fork Trail
2.4 mi one way | Easy
Yellow Stand Lead Trail
2.3 mi one way | Easy to Moderate
Hemp Top Trail – TN
5 mi one way | Moderate
Benton MacKaye Trail – Big Frog
6.2 mi one way | Strenuous

Sherpa Camp log cabin with a metal roof beside a small creek in the North Georgia woods

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