Yellow Stand Lead Trail
A connector trail, useful as a return route variant.
- Distance
- 2.3 mi one way
- Elevation gain
- 1,000 ft
- Trail type
- Point to Point
- Difficulty
- Easy to Moderate
- Crossings
- No crossings recorded
- Best season
- Year round
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
Yellow Stand Lead is short enough that almost nobody walks it as a destination. Its value is in the connection: it gives a loop hike a different way back instead of retracing the same ground, which is worth something on a wilderness where nearly every other trail is an out and back.
Marquee feature
A loop connector, useful for varying a return route
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