YONAH MOUNTAIN ACCESS ARCHIVE
Yonah Mountain is large granite dome located between Cleveland and Helen, Georgia. The top of the mountain is controlled by the United States Forest Service. This mountain has traditionally been used by rock and ice climbers, hikers, campers, hunters and other outdoors/nature lovers. At present there is no legal public access.
Access to Yonah Mountain has been in limbo for many years. Years of no one
accepting responsibility for maintenance or law enforcement have led to the
residents gating the road, which was previously open to the public. Here
is the latest scoop and some history behind it all. Please follow some of
the links for more specific info and if you have any relevant information or
discover any mistakes please e-mail the
.
Access to the summit was originally obtained to service a fire observation tower
in the 1950's. When the tower was decommissioned and dismantled the terms
of the original lease were no longer valid. At this time the Forest
Service had the opportunity to convert the lease and maintain control of it but
for reasons unknown it was not pursued. The Forest Service, the Army and
the public continued to use this road until the early 1990's. Then one of
the residents put up a gate and although many people protested it there was
never any real action taken to have it removed. Soon a second gate was
added and now there are three. This seems kind of redundant for a one-lane,
dead-end dirt road.
The residents’ reason for closing the road was the tremendous amount of
traffic along with problems it created. The first gate installed was the
red gate about half way up the road. This house was originally built as a
“spec” house by a builder. Since it was built less than 20 feet off of
a busy dirt road it did not sell quickly. It actually sat unoccupied for
over a year before it was turned into a vacation rental. It was then
rented as a residential property. These tenants complained incessantly
about the traffic. With their house sitting right in the apex of a curve
whenever a car came by their house was filled with dust. At one point
there was even a complaint about gunfire from a passing car.
At the time Yonah was kind of a free for all. The White County Sheriffs Department didn't have jurisdiction on Federal land and the Forest Service claimed to not have the manpower to patrol the area often. In twenty plus years of climbing there I have never seen a Ranger patrol the mountain. I even drove down the mountain once to call in a complaint and was told it was opening weekend of trout season and they couldn't send anyone and the Sheriffs Department said they had no jurisdiction. Of course all of the local punks figured this out and the Yonah parking lot became party central every Friday and Saturday night. To see an example of some of the types of people driving on Yonah Road check out this article.
Immediately after the closure of the road a local citizens group was formed to
challenge the gating but was disbanded when the Access Fund stepped in.
After much negotiating and lobbying the Access Fund was unable to find a way to
get the road reopened. Soon after the gates were installed the Army cut a
side deal with the residents for full access in return for paying for all of the
maintenance on the road. The road is now in better condition than I have
seen it in over twenty years and we are not allowed to drive on it. While
I think this is very unfair I understand the residents reasoning for the
closure. Most of them seem to like climbers. It was the drunken rednecks
that upset them. As to the current residents in the house in the curve;
when a buddy of mine came wandering down the road with his head busted open and
needing stitches they rendered aid and drove him back to his truck.
Currently the residents still allow foot traffic up the road.
This is very gracious considering that as taxpayers, we are still paying
for the maintenance of the road.
The next attempt at regaining access was the purchase of an easement from
Chambers Road to the west side of the National Forest boundary. In a
strong show of public support for Yonah access the Land for Public Trust along
with help from the Southeastern Climbers
Coalition and the Access Fund raised
enough money to purchase a right-of-way. This property follows an old road
most of the way but not all of the way. The new road has been surveyed and
approved for years up this tract but the Forest Service has yet to be able to
budget the 84,000 dollars needed to fund the project. In the past few
years 2.7 million dollars has been allocated to spend on additional land
purchases to add the Yonah tract, the Army has spent the money to keep the
existing road
in perfect shape, trails have been reworked, signs added, porta-johns set up and
other money eating projects done. It seems almost strange that one of the
cheapest and best things that could be done for the general public can't get in
the budget.
Even though private funds bought the Chambers road access it was then turned over to the Forest Service. Because there has not been funding for the road, trail, and parking lot yet, they have asked that it not be used for access at this point. The Army has ignored this and in conjunction with a lease of a couple of acres of private land they have built access that is driveable to within 4/10ths of a mile of the lower helipad and a have a decent trail from there. They have improved the old road from the lower helipad to the old parking lot to the point where it is driveable again. From the edge of the pavement on Chambers Road to the old parking lot it is 1.4 miles. Less than half the distance of walking up Yonah Road where we don't really have legal access anymore. The residents "allow" foot traffic at present but they could stop that if they wanted to. Check out the new trail on my Yonah map. This new road is currently blocked by a steel gate with a private property sign prominently displayed.
The original access options presented by the Forest Service give a great deal of information on the mountain and several possible access options. Follow this link to see these. Option 4, the access from Chambers Road, was approved. There was also a recent mandate that expands the Forest Service’s approved area for future land additions. When I first read it I thought it meant that 1,300 acres had been purchased but it really means that there is that much more total land the government would like to eventually acquire. Follow this link to see the original post in the Federal Register pertaining to the additional lands.
With help from the Land for Public Trust, the Forest Service has just acquired
139 more acres on the west side of Yonah in the vicinity of the proposed road
and parking lot. This new land makes the accepted road plan even more
viable. I will be surveying this new tract with my G.P.S. in the near
future to see if it would allow easier construction of the road. There is
also an additional 139 acres that are presently owned by the L.P.T. but has not
been transferred into the Forest Services control as of yet. With the 278
acres of additional property either acquired or in the paper work stages and a
mandate to acquire 1,300 more acres you would think public access would be
important enough to allocate some funds.
We also have a legal right-of-way up the east side of the mountain via
Friedrickson Road, which was also outlined in the Forest Services original
proposals. This option was cheaper but resulted in a longer approach to
the traditional climbing areas. I would like to see this one developed in
addition to the Chambers Road access. This would take some pressure off
the proposed small option 4 parking lot and many hikers would use a east side
entrance as it would be a less vertical walk to the summit than from the west
side. The Friedrickson Road access would also be super sweet for the ice
climbing areas on the North Face.
Currently the Forest Service is negotiating for permanent right-of-way up the
old Yonah Road, which they will probably get. This will be for Army and
Forest Service administrative access only. They will also accept all
responsibility for road maintenance forever. The residents get to keep the
road private and are never going to have to pay a dime for maintenance. I
am not even sure that walking access is going to be guaranteed in the new lease.
The new administration at the Forest Service has been much more receptive and
helpful than past ones. The current Ranger in charge has actually been
working to stop the A.T.V.ers that have terrorized the mountain for years and is
working very hard toward conservation and restoration of Yonah Mountain’s
unique resources. He understands our position and is doing everything he
can to help but without specific funding his hands are tied.
IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL INFO PLEASE FORWARD
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