My North Georgia (mostly) Waterfalls Project: Tallulah Gorge falls (9 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

Monday, May 12, 2014

Tallulah Gorge falls (9 falls)

5/10/2014 - Did the South Rim Trail along the gorge to get some videos. Got lucky with the weather, there was heavy clouds and rain all around...but only a drop or two fell.

7/6/2013 - just for fun, I've added statellite photos of the falls. Most waterfalls don't appear so clearly from the satellite...but these are amazing!

11/19/2011 - went to Tallulah Gorge to see how it looks during the "whitewater" release - when the let much more water go down the river and allow kayakers to do part of the gorge. I've been wanting to see this for a long time, finally got a chance! I've paired the photos I got with the ones from earlier for comparison. Didn't get a very good picture of Oceana Falls, will have to try again next year!

These falls are on the Tallulah River

5/1/2011 - went back to Tallulah Gorge with the TrailDames. Didn't do the steps down into the gorge and back up, just stayed on the the rim trails on both sides. Got some really nice pictures! I didn't get GPS coordinates as you can only see the falls from the overlooks, and at most of them you see more than one falls anyway.

(previous) This is another set of falls I did last year with the TrailDames, so I don't have the date. This gorge is "Georgia's Grand Canyon." I didn't get pictures of all the falls, so have posted the ones I have. One of them I can't figure out the name...so looks like this goes on my "redo" list!

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/ladorefalls.html

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/tempestafalls.html

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/hurricanfalls.html

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/oceanafalls.html

These 2 pictures are pretty much the same small branch falls that flows down the north side of the gorge. The trees obscure part of it, but it appears to be all one long falls. In the first picture you can just see the falls in the dark spot in the center of the picture.

Caledonia Cascade flows down the north wall of the gorge, just below Overlook 1 (where the Wallenda tower is located) but you can only see it from the south rim. It's hard to see the whole falls in the first picture, but you can see the lower part clearly a little below the center of the photo, so I included a close-up of the upper part of the falls. At the top of the close-up you can see the fence at the overlook.