Buzzard Roost
F.D. Roosevelt State Park
2970 Ga. Highway 190
Pine Mountain, GA 31822
(706) 663-4858
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.
Buzzard Roost is an overlook located along a ridge in the State Park, and this eight mile roundtrip hike combines a section of the Pine Mountain Trail with parts of two smaller loop trails: Long Leaf and the Mountain Creek Nature Trail Loops. This is the first of four hikes featured in F.D. Roosevelt State Park and is the westernmost of the routes – with an option of starting at the FDR Office, the campground, or a trailhead to the east. The guidebook profiles a counter-clockwise route beginning at the GA 190 parking area between mile six and seven of the twenty-three mile trail. The lot is located just southeast of Indian Mountain and north of Fox Den Cove.
- click for a trip report from this hike in F.D. Roosevelt State Park: October 12, 2003 (password required)
- click for a map of the Pine Mountain Trail with campsites and water sources (password required)
- click for a topo and profile map of this hike to Buzzard Roost in F.D. Roosevelt State Park
- click for a trail map of the Pine Mountain Trail from mile 1 to mile 9 (password required)
- click for more hikes in this section of the park to Lil’ Butt Knob and Turtle Hollow
- click to access the guidebook Best Hikes With Dogs Georgia And South Carolina which has details on this destination
- click for other Georgia hiking and backpacking books