Day trips from Nashville · Park
Cloudland Canyon State Park
136 miles from downtown Nashville · about 2 hours 10 minutes
Dade County, Georgia, on the western edge of Lookout Mountain
Cloudland Canyon is more than 3,500 acres on the western rim of Lookout Mountain, built around a gorge cut by Sitton Gulch Creek with two waterfalls at the bottom of it. The rim views are free and easy and the waterfalls are neither.
- Address
- 122 Cloudland Canyon Park Road, Rising Fawn, GA
- Parking
- $10 per vehicle daily, $70 annual Georgia ParkPass
- Waterfalls Trail
- 2 miles round trip, strenuous, about 600 metal stairs
- West Rim Loop
- 5 miles round trip, moderately strenuous
Permits, fees and access
Georgia charges parking rather than admission, and the rate went up to ten dollars a vehicle daily, the first increase since 2009, so older sources quoting five dollars are wrong. A Tennessee state parks pass is worth nothing here. Park hours 7am to 10pm, office 8am to 5pm. Camping, cottages and yurts by reservation. In 2026 the entrance road is under construction with one-lane traffic and flaggers during the day, and the visitor center is being rebuilt with a temporary center at the Group Lodge.
One thing to know first
The Waterfalls Trail is about six hundred metal stairs down and then six hundred back up, and the climb out at the end is the hard part, not the descent. Waterfall flow is strongest in winter and early spring, so a July visitor may find a trickle at the bottom of all those stairs.
Access rules, fees and closures verified August 15, 2026 against the agency that manages this place. They change, sometimes without notice. Check before you drive.
I keep this list because it is genuinely how people spend weekends here, and because almost every guide to it is out of date. If you are weighing a move to Middle Tennessee and want to know which part of it puts you closest to the things you actually like, ask me. No pitch.