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 26, 2013

Bear Gap Rd (4 falls)

The first falls on this road is in the 18 Waterfalls in One Day - hike and drive, see the link on the right

5/25/2013 - got a chance to go back and get the falls I missed last time.  Because I have a sore leg I couldn't climb down to get the best angle, so I did the best I could from the road.

Starting from when you turn onto Bear Gap Rd on the way to Minnehaha falls, at .3 miles there is a creek with a small waterfall visible from the road. Today when I was there it looked like the road might have been damaged by flooding as there was a lot of new rocks, and what looked like new pipes under the road. The falls is upstream of the road, and the best view is a very short scramble down beside the new work and then crouch down to see the falls under the fallen trees and the creek side shrubs.

According to GMAPS this is on Flat Creek

GPS: 34°45'11"N 83°29'30"W 

 

At 3 miles from the start of Bear Gap Rd (past Minnehaha Falls) there is a falls visible on the left. Just before you get there, you ford a small branch across the road and this is the same branch that has the falls, a short way further up the hill. The falls are just past the property sign on the left that says 3033 (the day I was there the property was for sale). As far as I can tell this falls is on private property, but the lower falls are visible from the road. The property was not posted, and it is a fairly short scramble up the hill to see the upper falls.

According to GMAPS there is no name for this branch, but it's flows into Bear Branch


  
At 10 mi there is a waterfall you can just barely see from the road. To get a better view of it, you have to bushwhack down from the road. Right at the 10 mi point there is a cut in the road side, and that is the easiest way down. Go down and downstream carefully and you can get to the base of the falls
According to GMAPS this is on Bear Branch
 
GPS:34°44'11"N 83°27'22"W

 
 Directions and Information: from Tallulah Falls, GA
  • north on US 441/US 23
  • left on Old 44
  • immediately right on Old 441
  • left on Lake Rabun Rd
  • left on Low Gap Rd (below dam)
  • where Low Gap Rd bears right, straight on Bear Gap Rd
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