The Pine Mountain Trail, a 23 mile footpath that crosses and follows the beautiful Pine Mountain ridge, offers clear crisp views of distant ridges in winter, with occasional snowfall, to the lush greens of summer ferns and foliage of lowland flora. Wildflowers are abundant and spring brings flowering dogwood, native azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron. Fall brings bright and beautiful colors, changing from day to day. With the connector trails that form seven loops there are over 40 miles of hiking trails for your enjoyment.
Since 1975, volunteers of all ages have labored to build and maintain the Pine Mountain Trail, a 23-mile footpath. This system of loops, which crosses and follows the beautiful Pine Mountain ridge in west central Georgia, is inside the Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park and near Callaway Gardens. Quiet woods, sparkling streams, misty waterfalls, rock outcroppings, varied forest, scenic overlooks, deer and turkey await your discovery. Just follow the blazes (6" by 2 ½" rectangles painted on trees). Two-foot-high rock cairns and mileage markers assist the hiker. Wooden location and mileage signs have been placed at each road crossing, trail head, junction, campsite, and at all named parking lots. The Pine Mountain Trail offers clear crisp views of distant ridges in winter, with occasional snowfall. In the summer there are lush green ferns and lowland flowers. Wild flowers are abundant and in spring you will find flowering dogwood, native azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron. Fall brings bright and beautiful leaves of hickory, oak, dogwood, maple, which change from day to day.
Much of the land that the Pine Mountain Trail crosses once belonged to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His farm was near the site of WJSP-TV. FDR often visited Dowdell Knob and the area of the Wolfden and Cascade Falls as well as the fish hatchery ponds built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930’s. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died at the Little White House at Warm Springs, less than a mile from the trail and Cascade Falls.
The Pine Mountain Trail Association, Inc. (PMTA) was organized to design and build the best trail system possible. Countless hours went into planning, scouting and preparing the land prior to construction. Members and volunteers started working on a weekly schedule, seeking the best route, selecting points of interest and building a safe and functional trail. Until new trails could be built, old existing horse trails and Boy Scout trails were used as temporary connecting paths. Miles of trail were obtained in this way but it took years of rerouting and work to get the final route.
The result: a trail designed for maximum enjoyment with many points of interest and few steep, tiring grades. After working in winter’s sweltering heat, a 23-mile, blue-blazed trail was opened from the FDR park entrance (near the Country Store at US 27 and Georgia 190) past Dowdell Knob and on the WJSP-TV tower near Warm Springs. Less than two miles remain of the old trail. The Pine Mountain Trail Association appreciates the cooperation of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the continuing efforts of the employees of FDR State Park.
Registries at the eastern end of the trail and near the FDR Park office have been signed by tens of thousands of hikers from every state and many foreign countries. It is estimated that 60,000 hikers use the trail each year and over 1 million hikers had hiked all or part of the trail by 1995. The trail is for foot travel only. Horses and wheeled vehicles are strictly forbidden.
Thirteen designated back-country/backpacking campsites are at various places a short distance off the trail. FDR State Park does not charge PMTA members (who present their membership card) for the required permits to back-country camp on the trail.