My North Georgia (mostly) Waterfalls Project: Dukes Creek Falls (5 falls)

What this is all about

I like to hike, and I belong to a womens hiking group called "TrailDames" - one of our hikes took us to a waterfall just over the border in South Carolina. This got me interested in finding waterfalls nearby and earlier this year I found a website with directions and photos of waterfalls in North Georgia at (see links for TrailDames & North Georgia Waterfalls below)

I now also belong to another womens hiking group called Off the Grid. Both OTG and Traildames are on Meetup.

Mr. Anthony's site has lovely photos of well over 100 waterfalls in North Georgia and I got interested in seeing them. As the weather got hotter through the summer I concentrated on shorter hikes to falls, and falls that were visible from the road. Then, as it started to get cooler again, I started doing longer hikes. It turned out to be far more fun than I expected it to be, and to my surprise - when I added them up - I had been to over 100 myself!

So I decided to make a record of them and of what it's like to visit them, in case anyone else is interested in seeing them too. I will be adding photos and directions, trail conditions, etc. in the future. As I "redo" falls I will update the page that already exists for them, instead of creating a new page every time. Keeping with the format of this blog site, I will put new information at the top of each existing page.

I won't be putting road mileages on the directions, I strongly urge you to compare my directions to a good map so you can see the distances for yourself. I'm not very good at guessing distances, so if I can find a trail length I will use that. If I'm guessing, I'll put a question mark so you'll know!

My apologies for the "watermarks" on the photos, but I have had...and know other people who have had...photos stolen off the net. The watermarks are to ensure that they can't be reused without being identified as mine.

I got a good GPS unit and I'll slowly be putting GPS coordinates for the falls, when I can. If I can get close to the falls the GPS will be for the falls. Otherwise, it will be for where you can see them most easily.

Nov 2012: I got a new PC and now that I can actually get things done (!) I'm going to rearrange the way the falls are listed. I'm going to list them separately, instead of grouping them by the day I saw them. The only ones I'll group are the ones that are on the same creek, or very close - like on the same road.

I've completed rearranging the posts. Hopefully this will help make the falls easier to find. I also found my count was WAY off, so I've updated the total too.

Jan 2013 - I just got a video camera, so I'll be adding short videos of the falls as I am able to get back to them. They might be a bit shakey at first, but hopefully I'll get better as I get used to using it!

Jan 2014 - I almost forgot about posting this! I had been in contact with Sharon Collins, the host of GPB's "Georgia Outdoors"...offering to take her around my 18 Waterfalls tour. She was not able to make it, but I did take her cameraman Shane Keating on the tour. I was hoping they'd do a show about the tour, but that didn't happen. However, some of the shots did show up in the episode "Mountain Magic"...so I've added a link to that episode.

Aug 2015 - I've created a Google map of the waterfalls I either have been to, or know about as publicly accessable, check it out at: https://goo.gl/maps/79Lyb

Got some additional news. The episode of Georgia Outdoors mentioned above, that has some of the shots taken by the cameraman on my 18 Wateralls tour...won a 2015 Southeastern Emmy for "Magazine Program" http://www.gpb.org/emmys

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Dukes Creek Falls (5 falls)

2/19/2011 - added some photos I forgot I had. They show holes in the rocks at the base of the falls that are created, during high water flow, by small rocks, or even small boulders, getting caught on the rock and the water whirling them around until a hole is worn into the base rock. You can even see some that are still under water in one of the photos. In times past, black powder musket balls were made out of small stones using this same process.

7/18/2010 Dukes Creek Falls is a spectacular cascade of about 200 feet down the side of the mountain, and another smaller falls. The hike down to the bottom of the falls is about 1 mile of switch-backed trail. It is not too difficult. I first did this hike over 30 years ago and at that time it was tough, but the trail has been completely redone to make the switchbacks further apart and the grades more gradual. There are several smaller falls that can be seen on Dodds Creek as you hike down.

There is a distant view of the main falls from a platform that is wheelchair accessible not too from from the parking area.

Dukes Creek Falls are actually on Davis Creek and Dodds Creek, which join together below the falls to create Dukes Creek. The main falls are on Davis Creek, and a much smaller one on Dodds Creek. There are several nice viewing platforms and boardwalks between them at the base.

There are several smaller falls and cascades on Dodds Creek as you hike down to the bottom of the valley. It's difficult to get good pictures of some of them, but I managed to get these two.