Track Rock Gap: The Mayan Mountains Mystery

Site facts from Wikipedia's Track Rock entry; Cherokee names and stories from ethnographer James Mooney. Check the Forest Service for current access.

The short version

Track Rock Gap is a 52-acre archaeological site in the Chattahoochee National Forest, in Union County near Blairsville, with six soapstone boulders carved with hundreds of petroglyphs. In 2011 a writer claimed nearby terraces were Maya, a claim professional archaeologists rejected. Vandals damaged some of the carvings, a discovery reported in March 2021, and the Forest Service now lists the site as temporarily closed, so check with the Forest Service before you drive out.

A short drive from Helen, in the Chattahoochee National Forest, a handful of soapstone boulders carry hundreds of carved symbols: circles, crosses, bird and animal tracks, human footprints. Nobody has pinned down who made them or what they meant, and that open question is exactly why people have argued over the place for nearly two centuries.

What's carved at Track Rock

Per Wikipedia, Track Rock is a 52-acre archaeological site in the Chattahoochee National Forest, on what the Forest Service lists as the Blue Ridge Ranger District, in Union County. Six soapstone boulders hold hundreds of petroglyphs of animal tracks, birds, crosses, circles and human footprints. Archaeologists place the carvings anywhere from the Archaic Period (roughly 8000 to 1000 BC) through the Cherokee era, which lasted into the 19th century, and the exact meaning of the symbols remains unknown.

The first written account comes from Dr. Matthew Stephenson in 1834. Ethnographer James Mooney later recorded the Cherokee names for the place, Datsu'nalasgun'ylu ("where there are tracks") and Degayelun'ha ("the printed or branded place"), along with stories the Cherokee told about it. In one, the marks came from hunters amusing themselves during a hunt. In another, they were tracks left by animals driven through the gap. A third said they were made when the animals were leaving the great canoe after a flood.

Petroglyphs carved into soapstone — Carved soapstone like the boulders at Track Rock. Whether any one symbol is a track, a sign or a story is still guesswork.

The Maya claim

Around 2011, writer Richard Thornton argued that stone terraces on a nearby mountainside were evidence of a Maya settlement, and he linked the story to the lost city of Yupaha that Hernando de Soto's expedition sought in 1540. It made headlines worldwide. It also ran into a wall of professional disagreement. Archaeologists pointed out that there's no ceramic, linguistic or genetic evidence of Maya people in Georgia. Soil testing in the two areas Johannes Loubser excavated pointed to somewhere between 800 and 1100, and the Forest Service credits Creek and Cherokee people. The Detour has the full story of that fight.

The Cherokee have a stake in this too. They see the petroglyphs as part of their own heritage, and tribal voices have objected to theories that credit faraway civilizations for work done in these mountains. You can read more about that history in our Cherokee heritage guide and the indigenous heritage overview.

The Nacoochee Mound in the Nacoochee Valley — The Nacoochee Valley's platform mound, a short drive from Helen, is a documented Native American site you can see from the road.

Can you visit?

Not when we last checked. Archaeologist Johannes Loubser discovered vandalism on the petroglyphs on March 26, 2021, and thought it might have happened the year before. The Forest Service page, updated in August 2026, lists the site as temporarily closed and doesn't say why. The older advice to just pull into a small parking area and walk up to the boulders no longer applies. The site is also pending consideration for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Before you plan anything, check the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest alerts or call the Blue Ridge Ranger District office for the current status.

Track Rock Gap at a glance
Detail	What to know
Where	Blue Ridge Ranger District, Chattahoochee National Forest, Union County (near Blairsville)
From Helen	Roughly an hour by road
Size	52 acres; six boulders with hundreds of petroglyphs
Access	Temporarily closed, according to the Forest Service; confirm before you go
Rule of thumb	Never touch, rub or chalk the carvings

Seeing more Native heritage near Helen

If you want the real thing without the closure risk, the Nacoochee Mound sits beside the highway in the valley, and the story of what archaeologists found there is told in The Gazebo on the Grave. The bigger lesson of Track Rock is a good one for any trip: the verified history of these mountains is richer than the myths people attach to it.