Go take a hike at Fort Mountain State Park

If someone told me to, "go take a hike," I would probably push the sarcasm aside, and literally go on a hike. My favorite playgrounds are the woods, and that's exactly where I spent Saturday afternoon. North Georgia has so many great hiking trails to offer, so if you've been looking for a good day hike, the search is over.. head to Fort Mountain State Park.

The sun never made an appearance, but we didn't let the clouds steer us away. The weather actually allowed me to take some really ominous pictures, which I was psyched about.. never say no to a good photo-op!



The park has foot trails, and mountain biking trails [if you're an avid biker]. We decided to do the 0.9 mile loop, which is marked yellow. You can also venture off onto a red or blue marked trail on the yellow, but those eventually connect to yellow loop, so it's extremely easy to navigate.

I've seen stunning pictures of the West Overlook, but since our day was so cloudy, we literally could not see anything in the distance. There is a great wrap-around bench at the overlook, so it's a great resting stop for a little snack if you need it. There are also a lot of areas where you can explore beyond the trail and climb some of the large rocks in the neighborhood (below; right).  


One of the main features of this trail, is the stone fire tower and wall at Fort Mountain. There are a lot of theories on why the wall was built, and who actually built it. If you want to read up on some of these stories, you can check them out here. The stone tower is the tallest point in the park, and used to allow rangers to find fires up to 40 miles away. You can't climb up the tower anymore, but it's pretty interesting to see. 

Steps leading up to the stone fire tower

Fire tower built by Civilian Conservation Corps