Welcome to the Vogel State Park page! Vogel is located about 35 minutes
north of Dahlonega, GA (Dahlonega is about an hour north of Atlanta.)
It's a nice park with lots to do, such as hiking, swimming, paddleboating,
and fishing. There are three trails that you can hike at Vogel State
Park:
Lake Trahlyta Trail - The Lake Trahlyta Trail is
a short (about a mile), flat trail that goes around - you guessed
it! - Lake Trahlyta, the pretty little lake in Vogel State Park.
It's a nice warmup walk for the longer trails or just a plain nice
walk to get a good view of the lake and surrounding mountains.
Bear Hair Trail - The Bear Hair Trail is a moderate
loop trail of about 5 miles, with an offshoot to an overlook that's
a nice spot to sit a spell and look. You want to hike the trail in
a counter-clockwise way, as there is a steep section along the way
that would make for a difficult climb if you were going up. Actually,
the time I went, the ground was a bit wet and it was not an easy
section even going downhill. That's about the only difficult spot
on this trail. Shortly after that section, my hiking group and I
came across a huge rock outcropping that was a nice spot for lunch.
(This was maybe 3.5 to 4 miles into the hike.) Not to sound like
your Mama, but "Be careful!" - it's a long drop from the rock outcropping
to the unforgiving ground below.
Backcountry Trail - Oops! I haven't been on this
trail, just heard about it. So I won't be a lot of help here. I can
only tell you what I've read and been told by other hikers. Apparently,
this is a tough trail. It's over 14 miles and is moderate to strenuous.
Relative to the other trails in the area, it's not hiked as much,
so you might encounter more undergrowth and brush along the trail.
It's doable as a dayhike, though it would be a long one and you would
need plenty of water and food. It might be more reasonable to split
it over two days and camp out. That way, you get two good hikes out
of it. Yeah!
This is a picture of Lake Trahlyta.
These are some pretty Fall leaves from November, 1998.