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

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Mill Creek Falls (2 falls)

10/15/2011 - drove up to the Cohutta Wilderness to see Barnes Creek Falls again, and to find the falls on Mill Creek.  Turned out to be a long drive, but these falls can be seen from a trail leading out of the camping area at Hickey Gap and there is a sign for the gap...but if you are driving downhill on the road the sign has it's back to you.  Apparently they don't think people drive downhill around there!

The campground was small, but seemed very nice.  The trail is short, but narrow and rough, lots of rocks and roots.  There were 2 falls, and between them a sizable extended shoal with lots of small falls.  The trail brings you out at the rocks at the top of the 2nd falls and you can scramble down the hill further to get to the bottom of the falls.

At the bottom, the creek makes a hard right turn and some other hikers said there is another falls "quite a ways" down stream - which must be the one Mr. Anthony refers to as being a further 1/2 mile hike.  They said the trail to the bottom was steep and very slippery due to the rain, so I didn't attempt the hike this time.  Maybe later, when it's dryer.
GPS: 34°53'34"N 84°40'18"W
GPS: 34°53'33"N 84°40'18"W

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

Directions and Information: from Chatsworth, GA
  •  north on US 441 to Crandall, GA
  • right on Grassy Street
  • right on Crandall Ellijay Rd
  • left on Mill Creek Rd
  • at Hickey Gap, right into campground
  • trail is past large rocks in campsite downstream 
Note: there is a toilet building in this campground
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The 2nd falls is way better than the first. Would recommend hiking on down its maybe 1/4 of mile. But breath taking . Tyler Laney gueriowns@Gmail.com

December 14, 2014 at 5:20 PM

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