Cheaha State Park, Alabama, United States

5tiltedaxis 5:00 PM Dec 25, 2020

Great hiking!
Great day trip! I thought it was a bit pricey since the cost of admission was per person instead of per vehicle. One boardwalk trail was also closed. The other trails were great, though, and we had some really good views. We ordered takeout from the restaurant and were impressed by the quality (a lot of state and national parks are lacking in the quality of food, but our burgers and fries here were great). We brought our dog with us, and she loved hiking the trails. We'll be back one day when in the area again.

4Tzivia R 5:00 PM Jan 26, 2021

Great park, we were there on a bad day
We came here on a day trip from Atlanta as we wanted to experience some of Alabama. We were jonesing for a great hike and found this place thinking it fit the bill. First of all, it was a long windy road to get up here, great views even from the road. The reviews are contradictory, some saying the paths on the hikes were clearly marked and others saying it wasn't so we weren't sure what to do. We paid in the store at the entrance ($5 per person) and the kind woman in there gave me a map with some markings to show us where we wanted to go. We wanted to go to the highest point in Alabama, we were hoping to hike up there but really it's just a road, and it was foggy so we didn't want to walk on a road in the fog (for safety reasons) So we drove up there and ate lunch at the covered benchs (seeing the Bigfoot - leave no trace initiative). We saw indications of a hiking trail leaving from there... but no clear signs on that one and it wasn't on the map, given the fog we didn't want to chance getting lost in an unknown area. We climbed the stairs in the observation tower to see the view from the top, but like a joke it got so foggy we couldn't see a thing, it was all white, like we were in a thick cloud. Anyway from there we drove to the first "hike" which was really a boardwalk, to Bald Rock. It was a quick easy walk, we went off the Boardwalk for a bit to walk in the woods, but it was all wet and muddy so we went back on. The fog had cleared by then and the view from the end was incredible!!! We then went back to the car to go to the wildflower garden. The problem was the trail wasn't clearly marked, the road is one way only and we missed the parking lot, by the time we realized we were by the cabins and the parking there was for cabins only, so we missed the chance, we also couldn't figure out where to park to get onto the rock garden or lake trail that we had planned on hiking. At that point we were tired and nauseus from the altitude and the driving up the mountains, we figured we'd cut our losses and we left. Anyway bottom line is this is a great park, we just happened upon it on a bad day. Also the signage for the parking and trails could be clearer.