Best Hiking Trails in Cohutta Wilderness

Overview

Managed by the Chattahoochee National Forest, the Cohutta Wilderness area is a roughly 38,000 acre forest area that resides in North Georgia between Blue Ridge and Cisco Georgia. It became Georgia’s first congressionally designated wilderness in 1975 and when combined with it’s Tennessee counterpart the Big Frog Wilderness it becomes the largest contiguous national forest area east of the Mississippi.

The Cohutta Wilderness is in the Cohutta Mountains which are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the lower Appalachian Mountain Range. The name Cohutta - meaning Shed roof supported by poles - was given to the area by the Cherokee who were the original inhabitants up until they were forced by the Indian Removal Act to leave during what would later become known as the Trail of Tears in 1831.

As was the case with much of the forest areas of the eastern United States, the Cohuttas were heavily logged. Most of the area was owned by the Conasauga River Lumber Company in the early 1900’s which by the 1930’s had cutover nearly three quarters of the area..

The U.S. Forest Service purchased the land in 1934 and began the rehabilitation process. Due to the congressional designation of “wilderness” in 1975, the area fell under the protection of the of the 1964 Wilderness Act (which serves to protect the “wildlands of America” by prohibiting new road construction, timber harvesting, mechanical transport, and motorized vehicles to name just a few.) The area is designated for primitive recreation activities such as hiking, camping, and horseback riding as well as hunting and fishing.

Trails in the Cohutta Wilderness are maintained to “Primitive Standards” and as such there are no bridges or man-made structures within the wilderness area.

When to Go

Trails are open all year; however, some trailhead parking lots are inaccessible from January through March because of annual winter gate closures. Trails themselves remain open and accessible from other trailheads. The trailhead parking lots affected by winter road closures are Tearbritches, Chestnut Lead, Betty Gap and Three Forks.

Permits

There are no fees, permits, or reservations required to use the area.