The Oak Mountain Trail Guide

This was the second trail guide I wrote, the guide to the Pinhoti Trail didn't seem like enough. Oak Mountain is a state park, and the place I go when I don't have a whole day or a couple days to go to the Pinhoti. Oak Mountain has it's own charm, and is really quite big and quite diverse. It includes two mountain ridges and some rolling foothills. The mountains aren't high, topping out at about 1250 feet, but the park is fairly diverse and includes a number of lookouts, rocky ridges, a waterfall, and some beautiful glens. According to the map there are 52 miles of trail in the park, but that includes a 17 mile bike trail that isn't very interesting for hiking and a 11 mile horse trail, parts of which do make for good hiking. As part of this guide I'll include a printable map, park information and links, summaries of the trails, my ratings of each trail or section of trail, suggested loops/hikes, and my photos as they get scanned in. All mileage information is from what is written in on the map, partial mileage is approximate from the scale of the map.

Oak Mountain has trails suitable for all manor of hiker, if you enjoy a half-mile loop, or would rather spend two days on the trail. Some of the trails that do not appear difficult actually are, and some that one might expect to be difficult are not hard. I'm going to include difficulty ratings on all trails. Oak Mountain has a lot to offer very close to Alabama's largest city. And if you can get pass the golf course and the BMX track, you can still find some peace. It is not as quiet as the Pinhoti, I rarely go a whole day there without seeing someone, but it also isn't as crowded as many 14,000' peaks in Colorado.

I'm beginning most of the trial reviews from the North Trailhead. The North Trailhead is a long drive from the park entrance, but much easier to get to then those starting from Peavine Falls which includes driving about three miles of rough gravel roads. The park office lot makes a good starting point for the green trial. The orange and yellow trails are easily accessed from the picnic area parking lot about half a mile past the park office lot.

Thank you for visiting my site, I hope you find it useful and enjoy Oak Mountain. Please respect the trail, and the other visitors by following Leave No Trace Guidelines. If you should happen to see me on the trail stop to say "hi." I have put a fair amount of work into this site and I would greatly appreciate you signing my guestbook.

 The Details (How to get there, rules, hours).

 Preparing for the trek.

Click for Birmingham, Alabama Forecast

 Trail Map.

 South Rim Trail (Blue).

 Shackleford Point Trail (White).

 Foothills Trail (Yellow).

 Peavine Trail (Green).

 Horse Trail (Orange).

 Double Oak Trial (Red).

 Mountain Top Trail (Unmarked).

 Peavine Falls Area.

 Suggested Loop Hikes.

 Other Sites Related to Oak Mountain.

 The Trail From Another Perspective.

Updated: February 5th, 2000

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About Lee, webmaster and author of Hiking Alabama

Last Updated: April 2003

© 1999, 2000, 2001 M. Lee Van Horn. All text and photos on this site are the exclusive copyright of M. Lee Van Horn and the Alabama Hiking Trail Society unless otherwise noted. No text or photos may be reproduced without consent of the author. No page herein may be reproduced or contained within another page or window. Links to this site are greatly appreciated and should be directed to this page.