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, June 30, 2012

Choestoe Falls & ice falls

6/30/2012 - hot, hot, hot!  106 degrees in Atlanta, and maybe close to that on Blood Mtn.  Did a TrailDames meetup to see the falls on Dicks Creek and because we got done so early we tried for this one too, but I'm sad to say it's no longer accessible to the public.  A house has been built on the property and the drive is now behind a locked gate.  So I am removing the directions.

According to GMAPS these falls are on Shoal Branch

4/9/2011 - did a long, roundabout drive today looking for new falls (see entry for Tray Mtn Rd, etc) and since I was in the area I stopped at Choestoe falls to get new pictures and the GPS coordinate.

12/18/2010 This falls is on the grounds of the Choestoe Falls RV park, off GA 180 between Blood Mountain and Brasstown Bald: http://www.choestoefallsrvpark.com/

Someone emailed this one to me after I posted about my blog on a couple of mail lists I belong to.  It's very pretty, and easy to get to.  It's on private property but is not posted and there is a nice, short gravel road to a parking area near the falls.  If you want to get closer than that, the road goes right to the base of the falls, but is rutted and muddy, so park and walk to get closer.


On the way to this falls I drove up GA 348-the Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway, which goes over Tesnatee Gap.  Just before the gap, and at the gap, there were these fantastic ice falls!


Directions and Information:

Choestoe Falls is no longer accessible to the public.
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Saturday, June 16, 2012

Pounding Mill Creek falls (5 falls)

6/16/2012 - went back to see if conditions on the road had improved.  They definitely have.  Looks like quite a bit of road work and graveling was done and the road was in good condition.  I was able to drive the road all the way west to where it becomes a paved road.  Found a new, small waterfall on the side of the road.  It's pretty much buried in rhododendron, so it doesn't show up well in the photo - but as usual, when you are there the moving water makes it easier to see.

7/10/2011 - went back up to Rabun County to Hale Ridge Rd.  My intention was to follow the Forest Service roads all the way into North Carolina, but they were too wet and in too bad a shape and I had to stop at the trailhead for the Holcomb Creek trail and turn around.  But I did get 4 falls along Hale Ridge Rd. 

These are all really hard to see in the photos, they're all buried in thick rhododendon.  As is usual with falls like this, they are much easier to see when you are there.

Falls 1 is the gray spot dead center in the photo.
Falls 2 is the line of white spots in the center of the photo.

According to GMAPS the first 4 falls are on Pounding Mill Creek

GPS: 34°55'40"N 83°14'18"W (Pounding Mill Creek)
GPS: 34°56'16"N 83°14'26"W (Pounding Mill Creek)


These two falls are very close together.
Falls 3 is the broken white line just above the enter of the photo.
Falls  4 is all of the broken white in most of the photo.
GPS: 34°56'21"N 83°14'26"W (Pounding Mill Creek)


This falls is hard to see in the photo.  It goes from the large dark area just off-center to the little white spot that is just visible near the top and just off-center.
 
GMAPS does not show the name of the creek for this falls, but it flows into an also unnamed creek that flows into Holcomb Creek
 
GPS: 34.98488° -83.28256° (this may not be correct)


Directions and Information: from Clayton, GA
  • east on Warwoman Rd
  • north on Hale Ridge Rd
  • last falls is west on Hale Ridge Rd - left turn at the T junction
Note: I didn't see a sign with the name of the road on it, but there is a sign on the right side of Warwoman Rd that says "Hale Ridge Cemetary"
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