Red Top Mountain State Park

This popular park on Lake Allatoona is ideal for swimming, water skiing and fishing.  Visitors can bring their own boats or rent from nearby marinas. A sand swimming beach is nestled in a cove and surrounded by trees, providing a great place to cool off during summer.  Picnic shelters and group shelters may be rented for meetings, parties, reunions and other celebrations.  Guests often stay overnight in rental cottages, a spacious campground, or the park’s lakeside yurt.  

While best known for the 12,000-acre lake, Red Top Mountain is also a hiker’s haven.  More than 15 miles of trails wind through the forested park, providing opportunities for exercise and nature photography. A short, paved trail behind the park office is suitable for wheelchairs and strollers, welcoming guests to explore a reconstructed 1860s homestead.  The gravel-topped 4-mile Iron Hill Trail is open to both hikers and bikers, offering pretty views of the lake’s shoreline.

Named for the soil’s rich red color caused by high iron-ore content, Red Top Mountain was once an important mining area. Iron pour programs are occasionally held near the Vaughan Cabin behind the park office.