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

Total Falls

Total waterfalls as of 6/7/2015: 504
Total videos as of 6/7/2015: 180

Friday, December 17, 2010

Montgomery Creek-west fork falls

9/19 & 20/2010 It took me 2 tries to find this falls on the west fork of Montgomery Creek.  The first day, being intermittently incapable of telling my left from my right, I took the wrong trail out of the parking area.  So I went back the next day...took the CORRECT trail and found it, but not after having something of an adventure in the process.

This falls is on the grounds of a US Army Ranger training camp, and just as I was about to get to the falls I found myself confronted with about 100 (NO exaggeration!) young Army rangers laid out on the trail!  I stopped short and asked the Ranger who approached me "Am I not supposed to be here?" but he said "No, it's OK" and proceeded to lead me through all of them.

As I was getting ready to take my pictures, they all stood up and left, going right past me...and I'm here to tell you, there was not an unhandsome one in the bunch!  I got my photos and left.

Mr. Anthony's directions say "Take the left fork. You should probably park here because the road becomes very narrow from this point on" and he is NOT kidding.  The road after that fork is VERY narrow and very twisting.  I know it's wide enough for a pick-up truck (though probably JUST) because there was one in the parking area on my first try, but if you choose to drive it - trust me - you will PRAY you don't meet anyone coming out the other way!


Directions and Information: from Dahlonega, GA
  • north on US 19 bypass
  • left on Camp Glisson Rd
  • right on Camp Wahsega Rd
  • at Camp Merrill - left on gravel road
  • right on SSG Charles B. Cooper Rd
  • ford Etowah River
  • take left fork - or you can park here and hike the rest of the way
  • at end of narrow road in, there is a small parking area on the left
  • go past parking area and onto old road/trail
  • at about .4 miles will cross small branch and trail begins to climb
  • falls be heard soon after this point and are on the left
Note: Camp Wahsega Rd is blocked, at the end, alternately right & left by traffic dividers - to protect the entrance to the camp.  Just go around them and then left on the gravel road.  Remember, this falls is on the grounds of Camp Merrill and the road in is gated.  If it's closed, you will need to go back to the camp to see if they will give you permission to enter to see the falls.  At the parking area I went the wrong way the first time I tried and ended up on entirely the wrong trail.  If you end up on a narrow, eroded, steep trail - you're on the wrong one!  The correct trail is an obvious old logging road.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I work at a lodge really close to this falls. Yesterday I was trying to find a back way into it, and discovered 3 more waterfalls, one of which is really really impressive. If you want info on it (since there really is no path to it) email me donmcelliott@yahoo.com
Thanks
Don

August 19, 2013 at 8:46 PM

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