Rocktown Trail (Walker County, Georgia)

 

My final stop within the Pigeon Mountain Wilderness Management Area this morning takes me to Rocktown, an extremely popular bouldering area on the plateau of the mountain. A rough gravel roads leads to a medium-sized parking area, with only a couple of other cars at the moment. It's still early and fairly cold, but I'm sure things will get busier here as the sun rises further overhead and warms the ground below.

The trail leads off from the right side of the parking area and at first seems like any other trail in this part of the world, but soon, I begin to encounter the first of the massive sandstone boulders that give this area it's name and make it so popular for climbers. Side trails lead off to large areas of building-sized boulders and outcroppings. Many of these would be amazing for bouldering. A few would also make reasonable shelters with their large overhangs.

I follow the trail for a while, but quickly get distracted by the number and topographical diversity of the rock field. Soon, I'm scrambling over one rock face and then the next looking for more and more amazing formations. This is all sandstone, but unlike the brownish-red surfaces I'm used to in the southwest. This is more the color of granite. Perhaps age has something to do with that, as I'm sure these formations are much older than those of southern Utah. Strange erosion behavior carve strange cross-mesh patterns into the stone faces. It looks somewhat otherworldly, but really interesting.

As I make my way back to the trail, I find myself once again getting pulled off trail by the incredible formations. One is of particular note. Between large stone ridges, a large formation rises from the center. It's much larger on top than on the bottom, somewhat resembling a funnel of sorts. I would call it a balanced rock, but unlike many formations that take on that name, this one doesn't really have a separation between the 'rock' and the 'support'. It looks like a single structure that defies gravity. Very interesting and unique. 

The final part of the trail, which I find my way back to eventually, enters an area of stone corridors and rooms. This could almost be the interior of a building or plaza, and is likely the source of the name Rocktown. It's appropriate. I think I'm actually on the summit of Pigeon Mountain here, but it's difficult to tell as the mountaintop is a large plateau and with these giant boulders making up the landscape, it's difficult to know where the highest point is. Either way, it's a great spot.

On my way back to my jeep, I begin to wonder about some of those rock overhangs. I've seen many structures like this in other places of the world that are home to spectacular pictographs. The overhangs themselves provide protection to the rock art underneath. Though this is a very humid environment, it's possible the ancient Creek or Cherokee decorated these surfaces with their artwork. I detour to a couple of the more prominent overhangs on the return trip and scan the protected surfaces for any sign of pigments. Some have modern graffiti, but obviously, I'm looking for something older and deeper. As I note a couple of red spots, which could simply be mineral-based, I decide to pull out my trusty Dstretch app on my phone and scan with some filters. The various color filters do make the blotches pop, but I'm not able to see any definitive sign of the colors being applied by the hand of ancient men. Ah well, I'm certainly not an expert, but it would have been pretty amazing to find some obvious pictographs here. 

After having hiked and scrambled about 3.1 miles on this little adventure, I return to my jeep. On the way out, I encountered no less than thirty or so individuals with bouldering pads attached to their backs and making their way into the rock maze. The parking lot re-enforces this, as there isn't a spot to be found now, where many existed when I first arrived. As for me, it's time to make my way to Cloudland Canyon and begin my next adventure for the day.