Wolf Ridge Trail
The shortest and steepest way up Big Frog Mountain, gaining about 1,300 feet in under three miles.
- Distance
- 2.7 mi one way
- Elevation gain
- 1,300 ft
- Trail type
- Out & Back
- Difficulty
- Strenuous
- Crossings
- No crossings recorded
- Best season
- Spring through fall
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
Wolf Ridge is the short, hard way up. The trail itself gains about thirteen hundred feet in two and seven tenths miles, which puts it among the steepest climbs in either wilderness, and most accounts rate it moderate to strenuous accordingly. Reaching the true summit of Big Frog Mountain means continuing past the trail's own end, by way of Grassy Gap or Big Frog Trail, for a full climb of about twenty five hundred feet from the trailhead.
About two miles up, at twenty five hundred feet, Wolf Ridge meets Grassy Gap Trail at a junction marked by a single, idyllic tree. The view west over the Tennessee Valley opens up along the way.
Marquee feature
The shortest, steepest route to the summit of Big Frog Mountain
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