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

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Padgett Falls

12/25/13 - went back to get a better video of this falls.  I walked up and down the road and there are 2 places where you can get a pretty good view of it.  One is at the curve, as described below.  The other is back up the road just where it starts downhill more steeply, just over a very small rise in the road.  The lower point gives a better view of the upper part of the falls.  The upper point gives a better view of the lower part of the falls.

2/8/13 - my sister and I went up to Rock City (first time I've been there) and on the way back we stopped and took videos of Padgett Falls.  I did take some still pictures too, but those didn't turn out verry well.

12/23/2011 - such a beautiful day, decided to take it easy and do a roadside falls.  Went back to Padgett Falls to get better pictures.  Winter is definitely the best time to see this falls.  I had forgotten just how big it really is!  We had a lot of rain in the last few days, so this one was really spectacular this time.

GMAPS does not show a name for this creek, but it flows into Pettit Creek

11/24/2010 Saw a reference to this falls when I was searching the net for GA waterfalls.  It's on heavily posted private property behind the airport in Jasper, GA

The 2 GPS points are the spots on the road that have the best views of the falls.
GPS: 34.45164 -84.46881 (upper)
GPS: 34.45166 -84.46879 (lower)


Directions and information: Padgett Falls is on private property, which is heavily posted..but actually the best view is from the road anyway 
  • From hwy 515 in Jasper:
  • turn west on W. Church St
  • turn left on Camp Rd
  • turn right on Upper Salem Rd
  • follow around behind airport - where it takes a right angle turn and become a dirt road
As you go around a tight curve to the right you will see a leveled spot, on the right, where a mobile home used to be - continue past and as road begins to curve left...stop and look down into the valley, falls should be visible but please note: this is a well-forested area and they may not be visible when the trees and bushes are in leaf.
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