Sumac Creek Trail
Nearly eleven miles through the northwest corner, one of the least traveled routes here.
ThumbnailThis 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
- 10.8 mi loop
- Elevation gain
- Not recorded
- Trail type
- Loop
- Difficulty
- Strenuous
- Crossings
- No crossings recorded
- Best season
- Spring through fall.
Wilderness status
Outside the wilderness
Bicycles
Bicycles are permitted. This trail lies outside the designated wilderness boundary. Yield to hikers and expect two-way traffic on blind corners.
The trail
The northwest corner of the range is the part almost nobody walks, and Sumac Creek is how you see it. Just under eleven miles on a loop that stays well away from the falls traffic and the Lake Conasauga crowd.
The drainage runs toward the Conasauga through country that feels genuinely remote. Bring a map. This is not the section to learn navigation on.
Marquee feature
Northwest corner loop, lightly used
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