A Detailed Review Of Our Stay In A Yurt At Cloudland Canyon State Park

I am usually a pretty dedicated tent camper but there are times that bringing a tent just isn’t possible on a trip. Tents take up room in the car, as do all the things you need when tent camping- sleeping bags, mattress pads, camp stoves, lanterns, cooking dishes, etc. And setting up camp takes a while, especially when the kids always manage to disappear for long stretches (“Hey let’s throw rocks in the stream!” or “Hey look at this super cool caterpillar!”)

Glamping seems to solve my problems when I want to camp but don’t have the time because we are arriving late, leaving really early, when I don’t have space in the car to pack everything, or frankly, when I am just feeling too lazy in general to do the work to make a camping trip happen.

With glamping you still get the feel of camping because you get all the fun of staying in a tent (crickets chirping at night, bird song in the morning, etc) but without any of the hassle of packing all the things. Sounds pretty good, right? Just as long as you are willing to fork over some extra cash for all that convenience of course. I have been meaning to try it out for myself and see if I thought glamping was worth that extra cash. I just hadn’t found the opportunity yet. Enter the excellent Cloudland Canyon State Park in north Georgia.

The Backstory Of Our Glamping Adventure At Cloudland Canyon

Who- Myself and a 14 year old nephew

When- Thursday, July 6- Friday, July 8, 2023 (one night). Arrived about 10am and left by 915am the next morning.

Where- Yurt #2 at Cloudland Canyon State Park in the northwest corner of Georgia, just 30 min from Chattanooga and about 2 hours north of Atlanta

What - We wanted to camp at this awesome state park and do some mountain biking. It was such a quick visit though, I didn’t want to pack and set up a tent so we decided to try the yurts at Cloudland Canyon, something I have wanted to do for a long time.

About Cloudland Canyon State Park In Georgia

Our family loves Cloudland Canyon State Park. It’s a 2.5 hour drive from our house in East Tennessee so close enough for a quick overnight visit but with enough to do to keep the family occupied for several days if we make it a longer trip.

The park has 2 front-country campgrounds, several primitive and backcountry camping options, a yurt village, cabins for rent, cool hiking trails, playgrounds, disc golf, and mountain biking trails. It is a really fantastic state park.

If you want the whole lowdown on Cloudland Canyon State Park- the hiking trails, campgrounds, the cabins, waterfalls, etc- check out my other blog about Cloudland: The Definitive Guide To Cloudland Canyon State Park

This specific trip was originally meant to be a camping visit for one night at the nice walk- in campsites in Cloudlland Canyon that feel like you are back-country camping. I had to pick up 2 kids at a basketball camp in Chattanooga the next day (the city is just 30 min from Cloudland Canyon) so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

But then a 100% chance of thunderstorms that night made me reconsider the camping idea. Also, the basketball camp pick-up time changed from noon to 10am so that meant we needed to be packed up and out of there by about 9:15 in the morning. Packing up a wet tent and getting a teenager up at 8am to help? Yeah, that does not sound like fun.

I was going to bail on the whole trip to the park before I remembered that Cloudland Canyon had yurts. It seemed like this was a perfect time to try one out and see if glamping was all that people said it was.

About The Yurts At Cloudland Canyon State Park

The Yurt Village At Cloudland Canyon

Cloudland Canyon State Park has 10 yurts clustered together in a “Yurt Village” on the west rim of the canyon. The village has a central bathhouse, a playground, and a covered picnic area next to the playground. A camp host site is in the middle of the yurt village, across from the bathhouse.

There is a short trail that connects the Yurt Village to the West Rim Loop Trail, one of the main hiking trails in the park. You can use this trail to get to all of the other hiking trails in the park and the main overlook of the canyon.

The yurts are well spaced apart in the village and have a good amount of tree cover between each one, especially in the summer. Some of them are closer together than others but for the most part, you have a good sense of privacy.

What Does Each Yurt Have At Cloudland Canyon State Park?

• Furniture- 3 beds (2 futons and 1 double mattress), table, stools, 3 shelf bookcase for storage

• Electricity- heat/ AC unit, large ceiling fan, a couple of outlets to use

• Outside- front and back decks, fire pit, picnic table, potable water spigot, Adirondack chairs

Inside Each Yurt At Cloudland Canyon

Each yurt is quite large and sleeps up to 6 with 2 futons and a double mattress. One futon and the double mattress are arranged as bunks with the double mattress as the top bunk and the futon on the bottom. The other futon is by itself across from the bunks.

Other furniture inside the yurt includes a bar- height table with several stools, a 3 shelf open bookcase for storage, a checkerboard table, and a side table next to the futon. All of the furniture is in a rustic style which fits the yurt style nicely.

Each yurt has electricity with several outlets for use, a ceiling fan with a bright light, a floor lamp, and a small AC/ heating unit.

There are 4 “windows” in each yurt as well as a clear dome plastic skylight above the fan. The windows are made of fine netting integrated into the canvas that looked really bug proof (this is important to me as a mosquito magnet of the highest degree). The windows also have clear plastic covers that are velcroed onto the outside, I guess so you can see outside while keeping the AC/ heat going. You can cover the windows with outer canvas flaps as well if you want privacy/ more darkness or you can roll the flaps up if you want to see out.

The doors on the yurt do lock and you get a key code to use while you are staying. The yurts seem very sturdy with solid door frames and wooden scaffolding inside that the canvas is attached to.

Each yurt has a small trash can with a plastic bag in it and there are public trash cans by the bathhouse for you to dispose of them. Bears must not be a huge problem here as the cans are not bear proof. I found that surprising.

Click on images below to enlarge

Outside Each Yurt At Cloudland Canyon

Each yurt has a small front deck and a nice- sized back deck with 2 Adirondack chairs. You also get a separate gravel pad with a campfire ring with grill cover, picnic table, a couple more Adirondack chairs, and a potable water spigot.

The parking area in front of each yurt is small and can hold one large or 2 small cars. There are a couple of overflow parking spots around the yurt village though so parking shouldn’t be a problem. Some yurts have several stairs down from the parking area to the yurt and some also have a couple of wooden stairs up to the yurt platform. Only yurt # 10 is handicapped accessible with no stairs at all.

Click on images below to enlarge

What The Yurts At Cloudland Canyon DO NOT Have

• No water, kitchen appliances, bed linens, cooking or eating utensils

• There is no running water in any of the yurts, just a water spigot outside which is potable.

• There isn’t any kind of kitchen either- no stove, microwave, or mini- fridge. Not even a hot plate or coffee maker. Plenty of room to stash your cooler inside though. No plates or eating/ cooking utensils either so you will need to bring those.

• The 2 futons and the double mattress do not come with bed linens so you also need to bring those or a sleeping bag.

Checking Into Yurt #2 At Cloudland Canyon

We got to Cloudland Canyon State Park at about 10 am on a Thursday morning in early July. We were way early for the check-in time of 4 pm, but we wanted to go mountain biking on the trails in the park and in nearby 5 Points Recreation Area before our glamping adventure.

The Visitor Center At Cloudland Canyon State Park - supplies, snacks, rentals, and check- in

We went ahead to the Visitor Center to rent a bike for my nephew and see if we could check-in that early to our yurt. I have always found the rangers and people at the check-in desk are super nice and they walked us through all the mountain bike trails and gave advice on difficulty and time estimates. They also gave us a local recommendation for dinner, which turned out to be absolutely fantastic, and reminded us where the nearest Dollar General was (we needed snacks for the morning).

Tip: Bike rentals are surprisingly cheap ($35 for 4 hours and $55 for 8) for a nice quality Marin hardtail. New blog post to come detailing our experience on the fantastic Cloudland Connector Trail!

They let me go ahead and check in to the yurt even though we were 6 hours early, with the request that we give the cleaners at least until 12pm. We got our key code for our yurt and a paper slip with our names and dates of stay to clip onto the sign by the parking area (much like a campground).

Note: Georgia State Parks charge $5 for a daily parking pass which is not included in campground, cabin, or yurt rentals. Or you can purchase an annual pass for $5o. You will do this when you check into your yurt at the Visitor Center. I have an Explorer membership to Friends Of Georgia State Parks which includes my parking for the year plus 10% off of lodgings. It’s a great deal and supports a very worthy cause.

We bought some wood for our fire pit at the Visitor Center, and I should have bought a lighter because turns out I forgot to pack one. They sell a decent amount of camping supplies at the Visitor Center, a small variety of snacks, and some state park merch- like hoodies and books.

Getting To Our Yurt In The Yurt Village And Unpacking

We got to our yurt around 2:30 pm after returning our rented mountain bike, sweaty and hungry. Approximately 10 min after parking in front of our yurt, the car was completely unpacked and we were headed to the bathhouse for much needed showers. Already, I was loving the yurt for this reason alone. So easy.

I was pleasantly surprised by the size and privacy of our yurt. We couldn’t even see any other yurts from ours, except maybe yurt #3 if you stood on the back deck and peered through the trees. Tons of room to unpack all of our stuff, especially because there was just the 2 of us.

After such a sweaty bike ride, the AC in the yurt was marvelous. It definitely felt like cheating since we were supposedly camping but I loved it anyway.

The yurt itself wasn’t particularly hot, even considering it was 90 degrees out, because it was so shaded and had a ceiling fan. But after 2 hours of biking through what felt like a rainforest, my 14 year old nephew was happy to crank up the AC. (Note to self - next time, try harder to start earlier when biking in July.)

The Mildew Issue

The yurt was clean and the AC unit had it at a very comfortable 73 degrees inside. My only real issue with the yurt so far was a mildew smell inside the tent. It wasn’t overpowering, but I also don’t have a great sense of smell so if you have a more sensitive nose, then it might be a real problem for you.

There wasn’t any mildew inside the tent but there was quite a bit on the outside of the tent. Our yurt had a lot of tree cover, making it nice and shady on the back deck and down by the picnic area, but I assume that is also what led to the mildew problem. Some of the other yurts that had less tree cover looked to have less mildew. Or maybe, they had their canvas more recently replaced, I don’t know.

The mildew was the only negative I had so far about our glamping adventure. If it had not been 90 degrees outside, I would have opened up the windows down to the netting and aired it out some. We did just that later that night when it cooled off some. The smell went away completely with the window open.

The Bathhouse At The Yurt Village In Cloudland Canyon State Park

Showers are awesome

Why is it that so many state parks have figured out how to put showers in their bathhouses and so very few national parks have? That shower after our sweaty bike ride was sorely needed and much appreciated.

The bathhouse in the yurt village at Cloudland Canyon isn’t huge, but also, there are only 10 yurts and a camp host RV in the village so not that many people. There is a mens and a womens side, plus a handicapped/ unisex bathroom.

The womens side has 2 toilet stalls and 1 shower stall as well as a large sink area with plenty of counter space for your toiletry bag. Toilet paper and soap are provided. The shower stall was fairly large with a separate dressing area with a bench and hooks outside the shower itself. The water took a minute to get warm but the pressure was great.

The mens side was similar to the womens but I did not go into the handicapped/ unisex bathroom so unfortunately can’t report back about that.

It was a 2 minute walk from our yurt (#2) to the bathhouse and it couldn’t be longer than 5 minutes from even the yurts farthest away, like #1 or #10, even at a slow wander pace.

Dinner At The Most Amazing Pizza Place- Lookout Mountain Pizza Company in Rising Fawn, Georgia

If you would have guessed a fantastic, traditional Neopolitan, wood- fired pizza place was located off the side of a highway in rural north Georgia, I would say you are a better guesser than me. A very nice lady working the desk at the Visitor Center at Cloudland Canyon recommended Lookout Mountain Pizza Company, saying it wasn’t the cheapest but it was so delicious. She was not wrong.

My 14 year old nephew and I split an Caprese Salad with a huge ball of fresh mozzarella over a bed of Arugula with cherry tomatoes. Then we dug into a “Camilla” pizza- homemade tomato sauce, smushed meatballs, fresh basil and mozzarella, ricotta and pecorino cheese. The crust was absolutely perfect, chewy and crusty at the same time.

For a grand finale, I let my nephew order the Nutella Bella, an entire 13 inch pizza crust drizzled with Nutella and topped with homemade whipped cream. The crust is fresh baked so the Nutella is warm and melty and it is divine. And filling. I only managed one piece and even a hungry 14 year old boy couldn’t finish it. No worries though, we took the rest to go back to our yurt to enjoy around the campfire.

Lookout Mountain Pizza is located 1 mile from the entrance to Cloudland Canyon State Park, just down the road from the Dollar General. It is only open for dinner Thur- Sat and lunch Sunday. They do serve beer and wine, with an excellent local beer selection. You should absolutely make dinner here part of your plans when you visit Cloudland Canyon. 100% recommend and we can’t wait to go back.

Evening At Our Yurt In Cloudland Canyon- Campfire And Dominoes

We had to make a stop at the Dollar General after our fabulous dinner because we needed a lighter for the campfire (I forgot one and I have never successfully rubbed two sticks together in my life). Plus, we needed breakfast food. It is pretty nice to have one so close to the park for the inevitable last- minute needs.

Once we got back to the yurt, we waited a bit to get our camp fire going because it was still quite warm out, plus it doesn’t get dark until kinda late in July. We rolled up the canvas flaps and plastic coverings on our yurt windows in the meantime so we could air out the mildew smell.

With only the fan on and no AC, we did not think it was too warm in the yurt even though it was still 77 degrees outside. With the windows open, the yurt felt much more like an actual tent and I liked it better.

My nephew and I chilled out in a blissful post- prandial stupor, reading books and enjoying the sounds of the forest. You could hear some of our neighbours with the windows open but I think only because one of the yurts had several toddlers/ young children and they were having a blast running around while the parents made dinner. If I was in a tent right next to them, I probably would have been a bit annoyed after awhile but the yurts have so much privacy, they were far enough away to just make me smile at remembering having kids that young.

Once we got around to the campfire, it ended up being a kind of a bust because a thunderstorm moved in right when we finally had it going. So we moved inside to play dominoes. This is where the electricity in the yurt really shines. With the ceiling fan on high and a floor lamp next to our table, but still clearly in a tent, it really did feel like glamping.

Overnight In Our Yurt In Cloudland Canyon State Park

Enjoying the sounds of a thunderstorm with nary a care in the world

We went to sleep with the sounds of rain hitting our yurt roof and it was awesome. Normally when a thunderstorm moves in when I am camping, I wake up and have a panicked look around to make sure my guy lines are holding tight and no water is pooling anywhere on the rain fly or coming in any seams. If I have to be gone early, I curse silently to myself and go ahead and plan out how I am going to pack up the gear in the rain.

But on this trip, snug in my fancy yurt, I could just enjoy the sounds of the raindrops hitting a canvas roof with little concern about packing up in the morning because I only brought a backpack and a bag of snacks. (And a sleep sack + pillow. But still, a one-trip-to-the-car amount of stuff.)

The futon was very comfy although I do wish I had brought a bottom sheet for it besides just my sleep sack. I felt a little weird sticking my pillow on it and my sleep sack doesn’t have a pillow packet. The futon looked clean, just weird for me to put my face where others have sat. (Maybe I am officially old now because I don’t think 20 year old me would have cared. My 14 year old nephew certainly didn’t care...) Not a big deal but something I would do differently next time.

Morning Hike And Checking Out Of Our Yurt At Cloudland Canyon

Fastest. Camping. Pack. Up. Ever.

With the windows open and the large dome skylight that every yurt has, the sunlight came in early. This was fine because we wanted to hike out on the West Rim Trail to an overlook and watch the sunrise. Like all good plans involving getting a teenager up very early, this didn’t quite happen. But we were on the trail by 7:45 am (only an hour and 20 min after sunrise🙄) with coffee, hot chocolate, and granola bars in hand for our breakfast picnic with a view.

I brought an electric kettle for coffee and hot chocolate in the morning. It was so easy to plug it in and have hot water 60 seconds later. Again, cheating and again, loved it.

It takes 5 min to walk from the yurt to the West Rim Loop Trail via the handy connector trail by the playground. If you go right on the West Rim Loop Trail, you will reach the Main Overlook in the center of the canyon in about 0.6 miles. But since the canyon faces north, we wanted somewhere on the West Rim to really see the sun, which was still low in the sky. So we went left on the West Rim Trail, hiking about 0.3 miles to a big rocky outcropping where you have a great view of the east rim of the canyon and the rising sun.

We enjoyed a beautiful breakfast on the rocks, then hiked back to our yurt to pack up and get on the road for Chattanooga. This took all of 45 min- hike back, brushing teeth, packing up car, all of it. I really love camping when I have this much time to enjoy all the fun parts and don’t have to spend hardly any time doing this things I don’t love- i.e. manhandling bins of camping gear.

We drove back to the Visitor Center to check out although I really don’t think you have to do that. I think you can just leave the yurt by 11 am. But I wanted to give them the heads up we had left so the cleaning people could get an early start if they wanted to. Then we sadly left Cloudland Canyon State Park to hit the road for Chattanooga.

BTW, if you are looking for fast food or a large grocery store, nearby Trenton (where you probably exited from Interstate 59 if you were coming from Chattanooga or Nashville) has a Food City and an Ingles, plus a Wendy’s, Mickey D’s, Subway, and other assorted fast food places you might expect. We got some pretty good biscuits at Wendy’s for our (second) breakfast - after all, a 14 year old is basically a hobbit amirite?

What I Liked About Staying In A Yurt In Cloudland Canyon State Park

• I loved not having to pack/ unpack/ set-up/ take down a tent, especially as we were only there for one night.

• Having electricity was really nice. From the fan at night, to the floor lamp we used to play dominoes, to the electric kettle in the morning, the wonders of modern living did make us feel very fancy and luxurious in our yurt.

• Things could be left in the yurt. This sounds weird but it is a welcome change when you are used to having to go back and forth to the car a ton when camping. For instance, I did not have to get out all the food stuff every meal and then pack it back up in the car in between nor dig out the toiletry bags late at night for tooth brushing.

• I got to enjoy listening to an overnight thunderstorm instead of worrying about water getting in the tent or having to dry out wet things in the morning.

• The yurt was really big, with plenty of space for my nephew and I to spread out.

• I liked the skylight and the open netting windows. It made me feel like I was still in a tent in the woods, just a nice big one with furniture and real doors.

• The yurt village was very quiet. With only 10 yurts, we didn’t really hear anyone at night and I never saw anyone else in the bathhouse while I was in there. And it did look like all the yurts were occupied while we were there.

What I Did Not Like About Our Yurt At Cloudland Canyon

• Biggest dislike was the mildew smell. It wasn’t terrible and it went away when we opened the windows but it was definitely there when we first walked in.

• Price, maybe?? It was $115 a night for the yurt (not including tax). While I really liked the yurt, I felt like maybe it was a bit steep, especially considering Cloudland Canyon had 2 bedroom cottages with a full kitchen, bathroom, and screened porch for only $185 a night.

Tips For Staying At The Yurts In Cloudland Canyon State Park

1. Bring bed linens (or at least a bottom sheet) plus pillows. We had sleep sacks and pillows but I wish we had a bottom sheet to fully cover the futon mattresses. Just a little more hygienic I guess.

2. Bring bug spray. The back deck is open air as is the picnic table so bring bug spray or citronella candles to keep the bugs off if you plan on spending some time out there and you are a mosquito magnet like me.

3. Don’t forget any kitchen supplies you might want. There are no plates, eating utensils, mugs, or cooking appliances of any kind in the yurts. Nor are there paper towels, napkins, or places to wash up except at the water spigot outside.

4. Open the windows to the netting part so you get the sounds of the forest and it feels more like you are staying in a fancy tent. We enjoyed listening to all the birds in the morning while still snuggled into our sleep sacks. With the fan on, we were not hot even though we were there in July. (We did turn off the AC unit before doing this, we aren’t monsters.)

5. Eat at Lookout Mountain Pizza Company if you are there Thur- Sun.

6. Hike the West Rim Trail at sunrise or at least early morning. It was beautiful.

Which Yurts Are the Best To Stay In

All of the yurts looked pretty good actually and there is not one I would absolutely pass on. The reservations page for the yurts has decent pictures of all them and looked fairly representative of what I saw except that the yurts were all new in the pictures. But how the decks were arranged and the amount of stairs to each yurt looked accurate. The inside of each yurt is really similar so don’t need to worry about that as much.

Yurts 1 and 10 are closest to the road so that could be an issue although they do not back up to it and there are a decent amount of trees between the yurts and the road. I also do not think there is a lot of traffic at night. The park gates close in fact and only people staying in the park get a pass code for the gate.

Yurts 8 and 7 are on either side of the bathhouse so that could also be a problem although they are not super close and again, there are only 10 yurts in the whole village so it doesn’t get very busy.

The back of Yurt #5 is right by the West Rim Loop Trail so you could get some noise from hikers. This is a very popular trail in the park.

If you have young kids and proximity to the playground is important, then go for yurts 2-7 although the others aren’t really far away enough to matter too much.

If you have a kid who likes to pee 5 times a night, stay in yurts 7 or 8 as they are the closest to the bathrooms. Again though, nowhere was super far from the bathrooms.

If I had to pick the best yurts, I would probably say #2, #3, #8, and #9 might be my favorites. Although, again, they are all very similar and well spaced apart so not sure it makes a huge difference.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed our night in a yurt at Cloudland Canyon State Park. It was a perfect way to feel like we were camping when we didn’t have the time or room in the car to bring all of our camping gear. The yurts are spacious, with more than enough room for 2- 4 people (although they sleep 6, I think that might be pushing it).

I thought the back decks and individual campfire areas for each yurt were a nice touch as was the rustic furniture inside. The whole yurt village was small and cosy but had all the amenities- bathhouse with showers, playground, covered picnic pavilion- and was close to one of the main trails in the park.

My only caveat was the price. I thought it was a touch high for what you got, especially considering what the cabins in the park rented for. They are very nice yurts with the beds and even AC/ heat, but I almost would rather they were slightly more rustic with cots and ceiling fan only and were a little cheaper.

I preferred the yurt with the AC off and the windows open (with their built- in net covering to keep out the bugs). I thought the large ceiling fan was enough to keep the yurt cool even though we were there in July. Maybe if they do away with the AC/ heat, they could drop the price a little? Something to think about Cloudland Canyon people.

I would stay in the yurts in Cloudland Canyon State Park again and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip. This is a great state park that is within easy driving distance of many places in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. It is 2 - 2.5 hours from some of the bigger cities in the area, like Knoxville, Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta and only 30 minutes from Chattanooga. So take an impromptu mini-vacay with the kids, skip packing all the camping supplies, and go have your own yurt adventure! Just don’t forget to eat at Lookout Mountain Pizza Company if you can.

Happy Trails - Amanda

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