# The Chattahoochee Trace *the river border nobody drives* The Chattahoochee Trace is a ~180-mile back-roads route from Columbus to Bainbridge on US 27 and GA 39, driven in 2 days, that stays off I-75 (by 90 miles) through the Deep South. - **Drive:** Columbus → Bainbridge - **Distance:** ~180 mi - **Days:** 2 - **Highways:** US 27, GA 39 - **Avoids:** I-75 (by 90 miles) - **Region:** Deep South - **Themes:** Oddities & Roadside Wonders, History & Markers, Natural Beauty, Small Towns The Georgia-Alabama river border below Columbus is the emptiest quarter of both states, which is exactly the appeal. It packs the strangest art site in the South (St. EOM's Pasaquan), a canyon Georgia farmed into existence by accident, a frontier fort on a bluff, mounds older than most of the hemisphere's cities, and Colquitt, a town that turned its own oral history into a long-running folk play called Swamp Gravy. Markers: Chattahoochee Trace heritage markers; Kolomoki's museum is built into the mound itself. ## The drive, segment by segment ### Pasaquan & the Canyon *Columbus → Lumpkin · ~55 mi* The whitewater city, then Buena Vista's visionary compound and the pink gullies of Providence Canyon. Stops: - **Columbus Whitewater** (Columbus) · Natural Beauty — The city blew its dams and made the Chattahoochee downtown into what's billed as the longest urban whitewater course in the world. Rafts leave from the RiverWalk. - **Pasaquan** (Buena Vista) · Oddities & Roadside Wonders — St. EOM's seven-acre visionary compound of painted totems and pagoda walls, restored by the Kohler Foundation. Nothing else in the South looks remotely like it. - **Providence Canyon** (Lumpkin) · State Parks — Georgia's Little Grand Canyon: 150-foot painted gullies carved entirely by 19th-century farming erosion. The state's prettiest cautionary tale. ### The River Road *Lumpkin → Fort Gaines · ~55 mi* GA 39 hugging the impoundments south past Georgetown to the frontier bluff. Stops: - **Fort Gaines bluff** (Fort Gaines) · History & Markers — An 1816 frontier fort site on a high bluff over the river, replica blockhouse and cannon included. ### Mayhaw Country *Fort Gaines → Bainbridge · ~70 mi* Kolomoki's mounds, Blakely's peanut pride, Colquitt's murals and the Flint River port town. Stops: - **Kolomoki Mounds** (Blakely) · History & Markers — One of the Southeast's oldest great mound complexes, its museum built into an excavated burial mound. Woodland-era, and older than it has any right to feel. - **Colquitt & Swamp Gravy** (Colquitt) · Small Towns — Georgia's official folk-life play, staged by the town from its own oral histories since the early '90s, in the Mayhaw Capital of the World. - **Blakely peanut monument** (Blakely) · Oddities & Roadside Wonders — A courthouse-square obelisk to the peanut, raised in 1954 by a county that means it. ## Tips and best time to go - Pasaquan keeps limited open days (typically weekends in season); check before routing the day around it. - Mayhaw jelly peaks in spring; Colquitt's festival sells out of it fast. ## Worth a detour - **Florence Marina State Park** — Lakeside lodging on Walter F. George, with the drowned town of Florence beneath the water offshore. - **Shorter Mansion, Eufaula** — Across the river in Alabama: the Seth Lore district's columned showpiece, open for tours. ## Frequently asked questions ### How long is The Chattahoochee Trace and how many days does it take? The Chattahoochee Trace is about 180 miles and takes 2 days at a back-roads pace. ### Where does The Chattahoochee Trace start and end? It runs from Columbus to Bainbridge. ### Which highways does The Chattahoochee Trace follow? It follows US 27 and GA 39. ### Which interstate does The Chattahoochee Trace replace? It avoids I-75 (by 90 miles), using US 27 and GA 39 instead. ### How many stops are on The Chattahoochee Trace, and what are the highlights? 7 stops are mapped, including Columbus Whitewater, Pasaquan, Providence Canyon, Fort Gaines bluff and Kolomoki Mounds. ### When is the best time to drive The Chattahoochee Trace? The atlas’s seasonal note for this route: “Mayhaw jelly peaks in spring; Colquitt's festival sells out of it fast.” ## Connects with - [The Old Federal Road](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/old-federal-road) — Columbus, GA → Fort Mims - [Plains & Andersonville](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/plains-andersonville) — Macon → Plains - [US 84: Wiregrass to Mockingbird](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/mockingbird-84) — Dothan → Monroeville --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/chattahoochee-trace Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-05