It’s volleyball season, so crazy weekend schedules.  After work Friday, we headed out to Dalton.  Dalton is about 3 1/2 hours away, so too far to drive there Saturday morning.

We arrived to the hotel late because traffic in Atlanta was horrendous as usual.

Saturday morning, we woke up and I dropped my hubby off at the volleyball venue and was on my way. I headed to Cloudland Canyon State Park in Rising Fawn, Georgia.

I was the first car in the parking lot and it was a brisk 28 degrees!

Cloudland Canyon State Park is located at

122 Cloudland Canyon Park Road, Rising Fawn, GA 30738

My plan was to hike Sitton’s Gulch Trail. Sitton’s Gulch Trail is a moderate, out and back, 6 mile trail. Sitton’s Gulch Trail has a 1,020 feet elevation change. To get to Sitton’s Gulch, you hike the Waterfall’s Trail and then continue down. On the Waterfall’s Trail, I got to see Cherokee and Hemlock Falls.

When you continue down to Sitton’s Gulch Trail, there’s are some smaller waterfalls that you get to see as well.

As I was hiking on Sitton’s Gulch Trail, I quickly got to a river crossing with rocks to cross.

Now any other “warm” day this might be possible, but it was 28 degrees and anything that was slightly wet was icy. In order to preserve my bottom from a fall and my feet from getting icy wet, I turned around and headed up to go to the West Rim Loop Trail.

The West Rim Trail has formerly been rated as one of the top ten hikes in the U.S. by Backpacker Magazine. The West Rim Loop Trail is a five-mile lollipop style hike providing several overlooks that showcase the park’s rugged geology, deep canyons, dense woodland, and views beyond. You get panoramic views of Cloudland Canyon along with much of Northwest Georgia.

After hiking I planned for a pit stop at Cove Methodist.  Cove Methodist is another Rural Historic Church of Georgia located in Walker County; it was established in 1872. The challenging thing about hunting for these churches are sometimes the GPS coordinates on the website don’t take you to the right place. Sadly, this was one of those and I couldn’t find it.

Hubby has requested a coke, so when I arrived back to Dalton I took him a coke and headed back out to find me lunch. After 6.8 miles of hiking I was starving.

I found a cute little are called The Mill at Crown Garden. It is located at

825 Chattanooga Ave, Dalton, GA 30720

There are boutiques with clothing and home goods and cute little eateries…a must stop if in Dalton!

Then I headed back to the volleyball venue just in time for the championship match. Our team lost the championship match but still came in second place for the tournament.

Another successful day of wandering.

Until next time.

XOXO

-S