Dowdell Knob

The Pine Mountain Trail is a 23-mile footpath, which crosses and follows the Pine Mountain Ridge in west central Georgia. The trail is inside Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park, close to Calloway Gardens, and popular with people from all over the State. Much of the land once belonged to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose farm was located near the present site of WJSP-TV. Today, volunteers from the Pine Mountain Trail Association maintain the path which includes many points of interest and very few steep inclines. The trail was first developed in 1975 and now is used by over 50,000 hikers and backpackers each year.

This 4.3 mile loop hike starts Dowdell’s Knob, a high overlook on Pine Mountain that was once a favorite of the former President. The route combines the Pine Mountain Trail with the Boot Top Trail and has panoramic views and a forest that was ravaged by a powerful F-2 tornado around midnight on Wednesday April 27, 2011.  If you look carefully, you can still see the damage from the storm as you loop through the forest.