Torreya and Britton Hill: where Florida gets hills

Florida's high point is 345 feet, so Mount Kalaga's mountains are Rockstar's invention; the closest real thing is the Apalachicola River bluffs at Torreya and the marker at Britton Hill.

Possible inspirationMount Kalaga National ParkCommunity mapping
In the game
The "mount" in Mount Kalaga
Mount Kalaga National Park, Leonida
In real life
Torreya State Park and Britton Hill
Liberty and Walton County, FL
Best time
October to April; spring for wildflowers on the bluffs
Cost
Torreya about $3 per vehicle; Britton Hill is free
Time needed
Half a day for Torreya, an hour for Britton Hill, a full day for both
Getting there
Torreya is off SR 12 near Bristol, an hour west of Tallahassee; Britton Hill is at Lakewood off CR 285, two hours further west by car

In the game

Let us be straight about the mount. Rockstar’s site calls the region Mount Kalaga National Park, and the trailers show forest country with more rise and fall than anywhere in the state. Florida’s highest natural point is 345 feet above sea level, the lowest state high point in the country. There is no mountain in Florida, and no real place in the state that Mount Kalaga’s terrain is based on.

That is not a criticism. Every GTA map has compressed and borrowed; San Andreas had a mountain too. Fans have guessed at the Appalachian foothills of Georgia and Alabama, reasonably, but it is a guess. This page is about the nearest thing Florida can offer: the one corner of the Panhandle with bluffs, ravines and actual elevation. Go as a traveler, not a fact-checker.

The real place

Torreya State Park sits on the east bank of the Apalachicola River in Liberty County, and it is the most un-Florida landscape in Florida. Bluffs rise 150 feet from the river, cut by steep ravines with cold streams at the bottom, and the plants are ones you would expect in the Appalachians: mountain laurel, beech, and the Torreya tree itself, a rare conifer found almost nowhere else. The Gregory House, an 1849 plantation home, was moved across the river piece by piece in the 1930s and sits on the bluff with the view.

Hurricane Michael tore through in 2018 and flattened much of the park’s forest. It is growing back, and the views are wider for it. Standing on the bluff, you get the one moment in Florida that feels like the trailer’s high ground.

Britton Hill is the other half of the answer, two hours west near the Alabama line: a small park at Lakewood with a stone marker, a picnic table and a sign giving the elevation. It takes ten minutes. It is the summit of Florida, worth the detour precisely because it is so modest.

Go there

Torreya is off SR 12 north of Bristol, about an hour west of Tallahassee. Pay a few dollars at the gate, walk the bluff loop and the Gregory House trail, and give it two or three hours; the ravine trails are steep by any standard. There is a campground and a few yurts, and no food, so bring it. Bristol and Blountstown have basic places to eat.

Britton Hill is at Lakewood, off CR 285 north of DeFuniak Springs. Get out, touch the marker, take the photo. On the way you can add Falling Waters State Park near Chipley, where Florida’s tallest waterfall drops into a sinkhole, or Florida Caverns at Marianna, the state’s only public cave tour.

The honest warning: distance. These two places are two hours apart across the Panhandle, and neither is near anything else on this site. Do both only if you are driving I-10 anyway. Torreya’s trails are genuinely strenuous in summer heat, and the park sometimes closes trails after storms; check before you go.

Nearby

Updated September 12, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.

Pair it with

Hunt camps in the Apalachicola National Forest

North Florida hunt camps, Apalachicola National Forest, FL

Mount Kalaga's hunting culture has a real home in the Panhandle's national forest: Apalachicola's half million acres of pine, sinkholes and swamp, where deer season runs from fall into winter.

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Ocala National Forest: the pine forest

Ocala National Forest, Marion County, FL

The pine forest and sand roads of Mount Kalaga have been matched to Ocala National Forest: 380,000 acres of scrub, longleaf pine and clear springs an hour and a half from Orlando.

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