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

Sunday, May 29, 2011

FS 58 & Noontootla Falls (7 falls)

5/28/2011 - went back to Long Creek Falls (see update for that falls) with my sister (she hasn't seen this one before) and also drove the whole length of FS 58 to look for waterfalls.  The creek along this road (Noontootla Creek below Three Forks, I'm not sure which creek it is above that) has lots of small drops and rocks, and is therefore quite a "talkative" creek.  It sounds like it has a lot more falls than it actually has.

We also found the short, steep trail to Noontootla Falls - which is distantly visible from the road, right up at the top of the ridge.  We didn't have time to try to hike that trail, will have to go back and try it.  I did take a picture, but the falls is so high up that it's really not a good picture.  There is also a fair sized "braided" falls right at the road on the same side branch.

Falls #1 & #2 are across from each other.  Falls #1 is in Noontootla Creek, and falls #2 is at the base of the side branch that has Noontootla Falls at the top of the ridge.
GPS: 34°41'9"N 84°11'44"W (unnamed branch, flows into Noontootla Creek)
 

Noontootla Falls is the wavy white streak that goes from near the top of the photo to about the center of the photo.

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

GPS: looks like I forgot to get these!
 

Falls #5 & #6 are right across from each other a little way above the Three Forks area.  Falls #5 is in the main creek beside the road, and #5 is on a side creek just above the road.
GPS: 34°39'36"N 84°10'42"W



Directions and Information: from East Ellijay, GA
  • go east on GA 52
  • turn left on Roy Rd (drive carefully, there is a sharp curve on this road)
  • turn right on Doublehead Gap Rd
  • turn right on Noontootla Rd (this is after Doublehead Gap Rd paving ends) - this is FS 58
Note: I forgot to get the mileage to the base of Noontootly Falls, but when you pass a short section of road that has white posts on either side (indicating the road was reconstructed here) you are only a short way from the trail to the base of the falls.  There is a wide "braided" falls right at the road where the side branch crosses underneath.
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1 comment:

Hiking Diva said...

Was up last weekend - attempted to hike up to the falls, got maybe 100yds from road, attacked by yellow jackets while on the trail. Lucky I only got 6 stings (was in jacket/hat/sunglasses) (August 2015) Ran back down - will wait until cold weather to go back.

Path has had a lot of erosion simce my last visit - make sure you have solid traction shoes.

August 12, 2015 at 11:52 AM

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