Yonah Mountain - The Most Challenging Hike in North Georgia

Mount Yonah Hike in North Georgia

The Details

Yonah Mountain is located in White County, Georgia. All Trails lists the Mount Yonah Trail as 4.1 miles total, with an estimated 1,453 ft in elevation gain, and an average completion time of 2 hours and 42 minutes.

My Experience

For some reason, I’ve hiked this trail several times, even though I know how brutal it is. Why do I keep going back? The views, duh. While this hike is very difficult, the views make it all worth it.

I’d like to say the hike gets easier the more you do it, but I’d be lying. No matter how many times I do this hike, each time I’m reminded why it’s rated as hard on All Trails.

The Climbers

On my most recent hike at Yonah Mountain, I had such a cool experience getting to watch people climb the face of the mountain. There is an army training camp that you pass on the hike up, and this was the first time I got to watch them do their climbing training, which was pretty cool.

There was even one guy who free-climbed the entire face of the mountain! He ended up pulling himself up on the ledge I was sitting on.

My View

I always thought I was afraid of heights…I guess I’m not though. You can’t tell in this photo, but I was sitting on a ledge, feet dangling over the edge, and there was a sheer drop beneath me. I think I freaked a couple of people out.