House o’ Dreams Trail
Hiking the House o’ Dreams trail, located at Berry College in Rome, Georgia
On a mid-September Sunday, Jesse and I decided to find somewhere more local for a hike. The weather had recently been overcast, windy, and in the 70s, so we wanted to take advantage of the perfect hiking weather! We decided to hike the House o’ Dreams trail, located at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.
If you are not familiar with Berry College, it is the largest college campus in the world. It is 27,000 acres, and over 15,000 of those acres fall under the care of Georgia Department of Natural Resources. A lot of the campus is open to the public for wildlife viewing and hiking. A large portion of the campus is designated as a wildlife refuge. The college is also known for its historic architecture. It is one of the most picturesque college campuses in the country, especially in Georgia. Even if you aren’t going to hike, it is worth dropping by to drive around!
Berry College is also home to Lavender Mountain. Lavender Mountain peaks at 1,526 feet. At the top of the mountain is the House O’ Dreams, a retreat home built for Martha Berry, the founder of Berry College, in 1922 to commemorate the school’s 20th anniversary. The house is still used today by college faculty and students. However, the trail up the mountain to the house is open to the public.
When going to Berry College, you will need to use the main entrance.
When going to Berry, you will need to use the main entrance. This is where visitors can get campus maps. When we drove through the visitor entrance, the student attendant was very helpful and gave us a map and showed us how to get to the parking lot for the House o’ Dreams trail.
We drove through the campus, and even that drive is great for viewing wildlife! Berry is known for its large numbers of deer. Just past the visitors’ entrance, we passed a small herd of 15 deer. We saw more deer on this hike and campus visit than all of our hikes this year combined! That being said, don’t drive fast through the campus because you don’t want to hit students on bikes or deer.
Once we wound through the campus, we found the small parking lot for the House o’ Dreams trail. It is a far drive to the trailhead, and it is easy to get turned around. The trailhead is located close to the Frost Chapel and not far past the Winshape Retreat area. If anything, put it into Google maps and it will lead you to the road it is on.
The House o’ Dreams trail is actually a service road that leads all the way up to the top of Lavender Mountain. If you are walking in the woods on a dirt trail, you are on a different trail. This one is a gravel road. After we parked, we walked around a gate, and started the hike up.
This trail winds in large curves up the mountain, almost like giant switchbacks. On our hike up, we had an elevation gain of 701 feet. It took us an hour and ten minutes to get to the top of the mountain to the actual House. When researching online, different websites had different trail lengths. My watch tracked the distance up at 2.56 miles, which is pretty accurate compared to the Berry trail map’s distance of 2.6 miles. I will say that by the time we reached the mountain top, I was dying! I am in hiking shape, but hiking uphill for over an hour is something that I really struggled with. Jesse said it wasn’t much of a struggle for him, and there were times that I would fall back pretty far behind him. I was very thankful when we got to the top, let’s just put it that way.
At the House O’ Dreams, there are amazing views of the surrounding areas of Rome, Floyd County, and the mountains. I read on the Berry website that you can even see Alabama. The House itself is surrounded by gardens, a koi pond, and a fire tower. All of it is beautiful. We sat under an awning at the House and had a picnic. There are also bathrooms at the house.
After walking around the House and taking a well-deserved break, we walked back down the mountain. Our round-trip hike ended at 2 hours and 13 minutes, 5.07 miles, and a 701 foot elevation gain. You know that feeling of pure joy when you see the parking lot at the end of your hike? I felt that but times 100 after coming down that mountain!
Although we did not visit a brewery after our hike, there is a great one located in Rome! Just ten minutes away is River Remedy Brewing Company. If you completed the House O’ Dreams trail, then you are more than deserving of a beer!
Happy Trails,
Katie and Jesse
Tips for your trip to the House o’ Dreams Trail:
- This is a dog friendly hike! The trail is gravel. Our Chihuahua and Pit bull did great!
- Half of this hike is up hill. If you know you are not in shape for this, don’t do it! It is better to find a hike that fits your fitness level than go on a hike that turns into a nightmare.
- Get a map from the visitor’s entrance!
- Watch for deer!
- Walk around the House o’ Dreams and pack a picnic! It’s a great mid-hike break spot.
- Drive around the Berry Campus, it is so pretty!
- Go to River Remedy Brewing Company in Rome for an after-hike beer!
Search for places to stay near Berry College in Rome, Georgia.
Berry College
2277 Martha Berry Hwy NW
Mount Berry, GA 30149
34.298657 | -85.177346
