Fightingtown Creek Nature Park

Conservation

It is perpetually conserved to remain natural and to have no cost public recreation.

Recreation

12 miles of flowy mountain bike and hiking trails!

Community

In 2021 the Friends of Fightingtown Creek Nature Preserve was launched. This group will provide support for STPAL’s mission related activities at the preserve. 

Park Update 03/30/2023:

The Southeastern Trust for Parks and Land, Inc. (SE Trust), created a park and nature preserve project on 190 acres of natural land located +/- 3 miles west of Blue Ridge, GA. The property is wholly owned without debt or obligation by SE Trust. Trail builders: Ken Nix and Scott Stewart. Ken’s other SE Trust trail projects include Talking Rock Nature Park and Pumpkinvine Creek Nature Park.

The park includes +/- 12 miles of natural surface multi-use hiking & biking trails that are always free for public use. The trails are optimized for mountain biking and hiking shared use through design and construction considerations including grade management, safety access, and sightlines. The nature park positively impacts community development, public health, nature, and passive outdoor recreation. 

The preserve and park will be supported by the Friends of Fightingtown Creek Nature Park (FCNP). This group is beginning to form and will be a standing committee of SE Trust. The group’s activities will include volunteer site maintenance and improvement; organizing special events at the site; fundraising for the group’s activities and projects; and input on the site’s initial and ongoing usage and development. The local cycling community provides volunteer support for the trails system: Georgia Cycling League local teams (Cartecay and Fannin County), SORBA, North Georgia Mountain Bike Club, Blue Mountain Bikes (Blue Ridge), and Cartecay Bikes (Ellijay).

Project Strengths:

• The property is owned by SE Trust. Property acquisition is the biggest challenge and expense for creating new parkland.
• Project meets local community’s long held desire for high quality, free public use, bike optimized natural surface trails.
• Project has strong, committed partners led by Georgia Cycling Association.
• The park is available for use for local cross country and mountain bike teams for training.
• SE Trust has demonstrated its ability to create high quality nature parks.