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

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Hidden Falls-Rabun (4 falls)

Hidden Falls - Rabun county

2/11/2011 - as often as I have been in the area of Clayton, GA I've been seeing a road named Hidden Falls Road.  Curiosity finally got the better of me, and I drove down it to see if there really is a falls in there.  This is a mountain development and the roads in there are more like narrow driveways.  Must be tough if cars meet going in opposite directions! 

I found a road, Big Shoals Rd (I think), that went steeply down the hill, and there was a sign at the top that said there were 4 waterfall lots for sale - so down I went!  The deeper into the valley I went, the worse the road got.  Right before lot #11, it was really bad.  I could hear falls though, so I drove as far down the driveway for lot #11 as I could.  It isn't a developed lot (yet), and the driveway just stopped abruptly, but right beside it was a small branch and 2 levels of sliding waterfalls.  The driveway was, at one time, graded and graveled all the way to the main creek, but was badly eroded and I had to pick my way down very carefully on foot.
UPDATE: I've been checking the maps on Google Earth and the "main creek" is Stekoa Creek

When I got to the bigger creek, I could see the top of a falls, but no safe way to get down below it.  The valley is very deep, and the sides are steep.  So I just got the best pictures I could, and then carefully made my way back to the car.  The driveway and road are so narrow that I had to do a "10 point star" to get my car turned around to drive out.  And then I had to power my way up about 30 feet of the road, as it was very broken up and my tires had trouble getting traction.

As I was driving out, I saw another long, sliding falls that is not visible on the way in.  This falls is probably on the same branch as the other 2, but I couldn't be sure of that.  Anyway, I got 4 falls altogether!



Directions and Information - as far as I can tell, there is no public access to these falls.  I found them by using the driveway of a private lot that was not yet developed.  But the main road into the development can be accessed from the north side of US 441 as you approach Clayton, GA
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