Cloudland Canyon State Park is a Georgia state park located near Trenton and Cooper Heights on the western edge of Lookout Mountain. One of the largest and most scenic parks in Georgia, it contains rugged geology, and offers visitors a range of vistas across the deep gorge cut through the mountain by Sitton Gulch Creek, where the elevation varies from 800 to over 1,800 feet. Views of the canyon can be seen from the picnic area parking lot, in addition to additional views located along the rim trail. At the bottom of the gorge, two waterfalls cascade across layers of sandstone and shale, ending in small pools below.
The park, previously known as Sitton Gulch (or Gulf) or Trenton Gulf, was purchased in stages by the state of Georgia beginning in 1938. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a project of Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression built the first facilities and signs in the park, which opened the following year. Today the park features a variety of campsites, cabins, hiking and recreational activities.
History
Cloudland Canyon was designated a state park in 1939 when the state began acquiring land from private owners. Three of these owners, from the Mathews, McCauley and McKaig families, still reside in the area. Expansion of the park continues sporadically as new land is purchased for it. The park was originally , and has been expanded to its present size of .
Until 1939 the only access to the area (and much of Dade County, Georgia) was through Tennessee or Alabama. That year Georgia began work on Highway 136 to connect U.S. 41 to the recently established park. The Civilian Conservation Corps did much of the early work to construct the state park and access roads.
Geology
The park is located on the Cumberland Plateau, atop Lookout Mountain. On the summit of Lookout Mountain, the waters of Daniel Creek and Bear Creek cut gorges through the rock, converging to form Sitton Gulch Creek. The flat-topped mountains of the Cumberland Plateau are significantly different from the narrow Armuchee ridges beyond nearby Chickamauga Valley to the east. From a geological standpoint, Lookout Mountain is transitional between the flat-lying sedimentary beds of central Tennessee, and the ridges and valley to the east, which display more intensive folding and faulting. Most of the canyon's rock formations consist of sandstone; shale layers below the sandstone are marked by pine trees.
Lookout Mountain was created through a combination of tectonic activity and erosion. It was uplifted during the period of mountain building that formed the Appalachians, known as the Appalachian orogeny. Over 200 million years ago, the modern-day parklands lay beneath an ocean. When first formed, the entire mountain was underwater, but the rim of the canyon eventually became a beach along the edge of the receding ocean. As the ocean dried up, Sitton Gulch Creek and its tributaries, particularly Daniel Creek, eroded the rock. The sandstone forming the bluffs has a tendency to fracture into blocks, creating unusual boulder formations. The concave shape of the top of Lookout Mountain also drains rainwater through fissures into the underlying limestone, forming miles of caves in the area.
The canyon is more than deep, ranging in elevation from to over ; the park's peak elevation is . The bottom of Cloudland canyon contains a slope of rock talus, which are sandstone and shale fragments. The valley floor is also rich in fossil-bearing limestone.
Hiking trails
The Park contains several well-marked trails which allow visitors to view the geology of the canyon and its surroundings. A paved, wheelchair-accessible trail about long overlooks the rim of the canyon. The park also features four more extensive hiking trails, including one backpacking trail. These trails are generally considered moderate in difficulty.
The Waterfalls Trail begins on a paved section, at the main overlook, and progresses into the canyon along a 40-degree slope. Most of the trail consists of gravel, and a 600-step staircase. Each waterfall emanates from Daniel Creek, and both cascade down sheer faces at and . The trail is generally considered to be a strenuous hike, which can take up to 90 minutes to complete. Cherokee Falls is from the trailhead; Hemlock Falls, at the bottom of the canyon, appears at . Each cascades into small pools at the base of the canyon, and continue down through a boulder-strewn stream bed. The creek flow feeding the waterfalls varies considerably according to the season. The Sitton's Gulch trail, commencing at the bottom of the Waterfalls Trail, runs parallel to the creek until it ends in a parking area in Trenton.