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

Raven Cliffs falls (8 falls)

10/30/2010 Did the hike to Raven Cliffs, along Dodd's Creek with the Traildames but I didn't make it all the way in.  I've actually done this hike several times over the last 20 years and it's always beautiful.  At one time there was a spot on the trail that was very narrow and overhung a falls in the creek, but that has been repaired and the trail is pretty nice.  It's not a "superhighway" trail, but it's still nice.

There are many falls and cascades on this trail, culminating in the one at the top of the valley that is in a narrow slot in the rocks...but I've never actually seen that one.  It's a long hike - at least 5 miles round trip - and the last bit is steeper and I'm always too tired to make the climb to see the last falls.  Next time I go, though, I'm going to make a real effort to see it!

I don't know how Mr. Anthony got some of the shots he did.  He either travels with a climbing crew (!) or is a lot better at scrambling up and down steep drops to the creek than I am!  Last time I went, I got a lot of pictures...but I'm not sure that these are in the right order.

 
 
 
 
Directions and Information: from Cleveland, GA
  • go north on US 129 towards Blairsville
  • turn right on Alt GA 75
  • turn left on GA 348, Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway
  • go past turn to Dukes Creek Falls
  • turn left into Raven Cliffs parking area, parking is across foot brige before the creek
  • parking is free
Note: the trail is a short distance back down the road, before the bridge.  This trail is variously listed as 2.5 and 3.3 miles one way.  Near the end the trail goes more steeply uphill. 
This is a VERY popular trail and if you are looking for solitude and quiet, don't go on a weekend, especially if the weather is nice!
Posted by

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)