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Joel’s Journal: Black Rock Mountain State Park
By Joel Raeber
Posted
December 2010
Black Rock Mountain State Park sits along the Eastern Continental Divide in Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, three miles north of Clayton, Ga., off U.S. Hwy. 441. (The turnoff to Hwy. 441 in Mountain City is easy to miss, so be alert.) In addition to Black Rock Mountain itself, with an elevation of 3,620 ft., the park includes four other peaks more than 3,000 feet in altitude, making it the highest state park in Georgia. Campers with RVs should be aware that the park entrance includes a steep two-mile climb with a 10% grade, and both the access road and campground have a number of tight turns. Larger RVs (over 25 feet) are not recommended. Due to the incline and the high elevation, the park may close during periods of icy weather.
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The 1,743-acre park has 44 tent, trailer and RV campsites in two campgrounds, with water, electric, sewer and cable TV hookups. There are also walk-in and backcountry campsites available, along with 10 cottages if you do not want to pull your RV up the mountain. Two of them are dog friendly.
Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains stay cool even in the summer and offer a break from summer’s heat. Rabun County, where Black Rock Mountain is located, bills itself as the place "Where Spring Spends the Summer.” Spring and autumn offer the most variety in temperatures, with early spring lows frequently dipping to the 30s and highs in the 60s. By the start of autumn, the higher mountains are in the 70s, but even late in the season, the temperatures reach the 60s. During the winter, highs are in the 50s, dropping below freezing at night. The park gets snow three or four times a year.
The 17-acre Black Rock Lake is available for boating and fishing (bass, catfish, perch and trout). A short trail circles the lake. Electric trolling motors are allowed (no gasoline-powered motors), but boats must be carried a short distance since there is no ramp. PFDs and fishing licenses are required.
There are 11 miles of hiking trails at Black Rock Mountain. The Tennessee Rock trail, the park’s most popular hiking trail, is a moderate two-mile loop that winds through some of the highest forests in the state. On a clear day, hikers can see for more than 80 miles into the neighboring states of North and South Carolina, as well as Tennessee.
The Ada-hi Falls Trail provides a challenging walk into a moist, north-slope Appalachian cove. The quarter-mile, one-way trail features mature trees, lichen-covered rocks, a variety of ferns and wildflowers, and a dense thicket of rhododendron. If the weather has been rainy, at the trail’s end is the observation platform for noisy Ada-hi Falls. In dry times, the falls can be disappointing. The trail is a moderately steep decent to the falls, so hikers are advised that the return is a moderately steep climb back up out of the cove.
The Black Rock Lake trail is about one mile and is an easy stroll with wooden bridges that cross two streams that feed the lake, and an 80-foot bridge spans Cricket Cove on the lake’s southwest corner. Several tables along Taylor Creek are great for a creek-side picnic.
The seven-mile James E. Edmonds Backcountry Trail offers both hiking and backpack camping. This trail is very steep in some places and is rated as “moderate to strenuous.” The trail follows cascading streams with small waterfalls. In the northern section of the park, the trail climbs to the summit of Lookoff Mountain (not to be confused with Lookout Mountain).
When traveling around Black Rock Mountain and the mountains of northeast Georgia, plan a visit to the Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center in Mountain City. The Foxfire Museum gives visitors a look at a unique time and place in America's past that is almost gone. It is a glimpse of the past captured by local high school students who valued their heritage. The Foxfire Book series of the 1960s helped the Center to fund new growth. In 1974, Foxfire students purchased land on Black Rock Mountain and created today’s museum and cultural center. About half of the 20+ log cabins at the museum are authentic structures, standing nearly as they were originally built almost 200 years ago. The rest of the cabins are traditional designs, constructed from usable pieces of barns, homes or other buildings too deteriorated to be reassembled.
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There is an entry fee for visitors to take a self-guided walking tour of the museum along a trail that climbs the property, winding throughout the cabins and grounds. Occasional demonstrations of “living history” add to the experience.
Other things to do and see nearby are Tallulah Gorge State Park, Moccasin Creek State Park, and the town of Clayton with art galleries and restaurants. The park is just south of the North Carolina State line and the towns of Highlands and Franklin, N.C., with antiques and shops. The Dillard House is just a few miles north of Mountain City for good food.
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