YONAH MOUNTAIN ACCESS
After approximately eight years in limbo, public access to Yonah Mountain has been restored. Yonah Mountain is located in White County off of Hwy 75 between Cleveland and Helen. It has long been a major tourist attraction for the area, drawing scores of rock climbers, hikers, campers and other user groups.
The access problems originated when local homeowners on the road traditionally used decided to gate it after nearly 50 years of public use. The U.S. Army who uses the mountain for training purposes immediately cut a deal with the land owners for access by offering to maintain the road at taxpayer’s expense.
The U.S. Forest Service soon followed suit by offering to help maintain the road in exchange for “administrative access”. This left the public out in the cold with no legal access but having to foot the bill to maintain a private road which they couldn’t use.
The Southeastern Climbers Coalition, The Access Fund (both of these organizations are rock climber supported activist organizations), and the Land for Public Trust launched an initiative to purchase land for legal access. A tract of land was bought off of Chambers Road which connected the land locked Forest Service tract with a public road.
This land, funded by private donations, was then deeded to the Forrest Service with the promise of a road being built forthright. There was a period of planning and three plans were released for public review. The approved plan called for a 1.2 mile road that would have placed the parking area about half way up the mountain. This plan was modified slightly one more time and released for public comment and approved.
What has now been built in no way represents any of the plans which were released to the public and organizations that helped pay for the property to build it on. We now have a gravel road that is approximately 500 yards long which is much shorter than the publicly proposed and approved plans. The Forrest Service said that budget concerns and visual impact were the main influences in the change of plans. They do have the budget to still keep the private road maintained though.
From the new parking lot a fairly well constructed trail winds up the mountain to the top. This new trail is moderately strenuous and the hiking time to the top of the mountain is about an hour for fit individuals. This trail features a bridge over the only drainage it crosses and nice views of the area.
The grade of the trail has been well planned and it is only steep in a couple of places. Because of the winding nature of this trail many people will be tempted to short cut it in places. Please try to avoid shortcutting the trail as it will lead to detrimental impact on the ecology and cause additional erosion problems.
While the new road and trail is not optimally done to make access as quick and easy as originally planned it is still very exciting for users of Yonah Mountain. Over the past few weeks I have seen many people using this access for adventures on the mountain. The majority are rock climbers. A good number of rapellers, hikers and campers are using this access also.
The only camping is primitive and no regulations have been posted as of this time. If some are not implemented the same problems that forced the landowners to close the traditional access will begin to reoccur. No water is available but modernized “outhouses” do at least provide restroom facilities.
The number one user group on Yonah Mountain is rock climbers. Climbers come from all over the Southeast and sometimes even further to enjoy its beautiful granite climbing. The main wall provides close to a hundred climbs that vary from very easy to extremely difficult.
Often times the Army has large groups of Ranger trainees from Camp Frank D. Merrill on the mountain so be flexible with your climbing plans if they are on the mountain. At present they are only using a small fraction of the overall climbing resource so there is still plenty of climbing to be done when they are training.
I have been climbing on Yonah for over 25 years and still find new climbs to challenge me on a regular basis. In the winter Yonan even offers several ice climbs for those who are inclined to climb it. The North Face offers very consistent ice and there is even one ice climb that forms occasionally on the predominate Southwest Face.
Many of the permanent climbing anchors on Yonah are very old or not optimally placed so be sure and use good judgment when using fixed anchors. This especially pertains to sport rapellers who rely solely on fixed anchors for their safety.
If rock climbing or rapelling are a little over the top for you then the hiking and sight seeing may be just what your looking for. The views from the mountain are exquisite. Make sure and bring your own water as there is none available anywhere on the mountain. The only trail map that exists at present is crude but useable. It can be found at www.coolclimbing.com. Follow the rock climbing link then look under the topos tab. Rock climbing route information can also be found on this site.
If you have never been to Yonah or want to reacquaint yourself with this beautiful resource then get out and see it for yourself. It will make for an exciting day of adventure and discovery.
Directions:
Take Hwy 75 north from Cleveland, GA toward Helen. Turn right on Tom Bell Rd at the West Family Restaurant. Take an immediate left on Chambers Rd. Look for the second gravel Road on the left and follow the obvious trail from the parking lot.
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