My North Georgia (mostly) Waterfalls Project

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

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Cascade Springs falls

7/5/2014 - on a whim I started checking around on the internet for any new falls I haven't found before and I actually found one...and it's INSIDE the Perimeter! It's in Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. From the parking lot, take the trail across the wooden bridge and at the trail junction, the shortest trail to the falls is to the left. It's an easy, level trail along the creek but just before the falls it starts up a short climb to a bench. From the bench you can go back down to the base of the falls, but it's pretty steep and I didn't do that...so the picture and video are maybe not as clear as they could be. The creek was low on water and the falls wanders across the rocks from left to right. The dark, rectangular blotch at the top is the bridge where Cascade Road crosses the creek.

Directions and Information: from Atlanta, Ga

from I258 west of Atlanta and south of the I20 junction
take Cascade Road east
watch for high chain link fence on right, after Harbin Rd SW
turn into parking lot for Cascade Springs Nature Preserve
take trail across bridge

Toccoa Falls

7/4/2014 - my sister and I took advantage of the holiday and went to get videos of Toccoa Falls And Henderson Falls (http://doggonega.blogspot.com/2011/11/toccoa-falls-henderson-falls-401-402.html). Since it was the holiday, and this is a popular falls, it wasn't possible to get the video with no people in it...but I did the best I could!

11/25/2011 - Took an easy day and went to Toccoa to get a couple of falls. Toccoa Falls I'd been to before, but didn't have any photos. Henderson Falls I found on the internet and since it was in Toccoa I did that one too!

This falls is on Toccoa Creek

GPS: 34.59455 -83.3674

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

Directions and Information: from US 441-north of Cornelia, GA

east on Alt Ga 17-to Toccoa Falls College
right into college grounds
follow college signs to parking for falls

Note: basically, follow the creek through the college to gift shop. The falls is through the black iron gate beside the building.

Henderson Falls

7/4/2014 - my sister and I took advantage of the holiday and went to get videos of Toccoa Falls (http://doggonega.blogspot.com/2011/11/toccoa-falls-henderson-falls-401-402.html) and Henderson Falls. I couldn't get down to the base of the falls...the steps and deck are closed due to rotting of the wood.

11/25/2011 - Took an easy day and went to Toccoa to get a couple of falls. Toccoa Falls I'd been to before, but didn't have any photos. Henderson Falls I found on the internet and since it was in Toccoa I did that one too!

GMAPS does not show the creek for this falls

GPS: 34.59198° -83.33302°

Directions and Information: from Toccoa College

east on Alt Ga 17
right on Henderson Falls Rd (just before Alt 17 turns right)
follow road to Henderson Falls Park
follow creek downstream to viewing deck
falls is down the steps beside the deck

Note: my map program show Henderson Falls Road as York Road, but there is a sign where the road meet Ga Alt 17 and it says Henderson Falls Road

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Chauga River falls

5/26/2014 - got this falls the same day as the falls on Ramsey Creek. Both are in Chau Ram Park in South Carolina (see http://doggonega.blogspot.com/2014/05/ramsey-creek-falls.html for more information)

When you watch the video, that whining noise that is blotting out the sound of the falls is the sound of a water pump above the river, and just off to the right of the falls, downstream a bit. Scared me almost to death when it suddenly came on!

GPS: 34.68344°N 83.14643°W

Directions & Information: from Westminster, SC

north on US 76
left on Chau Ram Park Rd
near the end of the parking area, cross the bridge over Ramsey Creek
paved trail to left and over hill to suspension bridge over the Chauga River
follow the river side trail to the falls

Ramsey Creek Falls

5/26/2014 - took advantage of the holiday and went over to South Carolina to find Chau Ram Park and the waterfall there on Ramsey Creek. The name of the park seems vaguely Middle-Eastern, or Indian sub-continent to me...but when you get there you realize where it came from...it's at the junction of the CHAUga River and RAMsey Creek!

Turned out there's also a small waterfall on the Chauga River, so I actually got 2 that day. (see http://doggonega.blogspot.com/2014/05/chauga-river-falls.html for this falls)

GPS: 34.68555°N 83.14520°W