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, September 29, 2013

Tom Branch Falls *

9/14/2013 - Tom Branch Falls

(see Juney Whank Falls for more information)

Did this falls the same day as Juney Whank Falls, from Deep Creek Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This falls is a side-branch that falls into Deep Creek about 1/2 mile from the parking area.


Directions and Information: from Clayton, GA
  • north on US 23/441 to Franklin, NC
  • east continue on US 23/441 on bypass around Franklin
  • west on US 441/74 just past Dillsboro, NC
  • continue west on US 74 to exit 67, Bryson City, NC
  • north on Veterans Blvd
  • east on US 19 (Main St)
  • north on Everett St
  • bear right on Toot Hollow Rd and continue north
  • at T-junction, north on N. Deep Creek Rd
  • right across bridge to campground office

Note: my map program tries to route you to Bryson City via NC 28, but the website for a commercial campground near the park says this is a narrow, twisting road and they don't recommend it for RVs or trailers.
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Juney Whank Falls (3) *

9/14/2013 - Juney Whank Falls

Took the van (that I have been working on for months to get ready for camping) up to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park...to the Deep Creek Campground.  Nice, cold water campground (no hot water, no electricity, but very nice, clean rest rooms) for the weekend.  Had a great time, but it didn't end so well...the van started smoking just above Franklin, NC and had to be towed all the way back to Gainesville.

The campground is very nice, and there are miles of trails to explore.  The trail up to Juney Whank Falls is listed at .4 mi.  It starts as a steepish, switch-backed trail, then becomes easier.  Right before the falls is a series of narrow steps down, right along the rock face that the upper falls flows down.  There's a nice bridge, with a seat built into the downstream hand-rail. 

The lower falls is hard to get a good picture of from the trail.  It looked like it would be possible to pick your way lower along it, but with my knees still giving me some trouble, I didn't chance it.  Just got the best angle I could from the trail.

The trail actually continues over the bridge and back down the mountain, but I don't recommend taking that part of it.  It's also a horse trail, and it's narrow, and deep in a cut in the ground, and goes more or less straight down the mountain...not a pleasant hike, even though the trail is well maintained.  It might be hard to get out of the way, though, if you should meet a horse coming up or down.  I suggest hiking back down the trail up.

I did find a small falls just beyond the parking area that is not shown on the maps.




Directions and Information: from Clayton, GA
  • north on US 23/441 to Franklin, NC
  • east continue on US 23/441 on bypass around Franklin
  • west on US 441/74 just past Dillsboro, NC
  • continue west on US 74 to exit 67, Bryson City, NC
  • north on Veterans Blvd
  • east on US 19 (Main St)
  • north on Everett St
  • bear right on Toot Hollow Rd and continue north
  • at T-junction, north on N. Deep Creek Rd
  • right across bridge to campground office

Note: my map program tries to route you to Bryson City via NC 28, but the website for a commercial campground near the park says this is a narrow, twisting road and they don't recommend it for RVs or trailers.

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