Lodge Trail

The Lodge Trail provides a pleasant, accessible loop through the wooded lakefront grounds surrounding Red Top Mountain State Park's lodge and conference center, with several overlooks onto Lake Allatoona's sheltered coves. The trail is the most family-friendly route in the park, following graded paths through maturing second-growth hardwood forest with a dense dogwood and redbud understory that creates spectacular spring blooms in April. The redbud bloom typically peaks in the first two weeks of April, coinciding with dogwood white flowers to create a layered pink-and-white display.

The trail passes the lodge's lakefront lawn, where ospreys frequently dive for fish in the shallows and double-crested cormorants dry their wings on lake buoys. Belted kingfishers patrol the entire shoreline with their rattling call. The loop's gentle terrain makes it suitable for all ages and fitness levels, though the 200-foot cumulative elevation gain involves several short, steep sections on the ridge crossings between coves. Wildlife is abundant in the lodge area: white-tailed deer are often spotted grazing the lawn at dawn, and wild turkeys scratch through the leaf litter along the trail. The trail serves as an excellent warm-up for the longer Homestead or Lakeside trails accessed from the same trailhead.