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

Friday, September 6, 2019

Van photos

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Indian Creek Falls *

6/6/15 - went back to Deep Creek Campground, near Bryson City, NC to hike it to see Indian Creek Falls. When I was there previously I was still having trouble with my knees and couldn't hike that far...but this time it was easy and pleasant.

GPS: 35.472738, -83.427374

Directions and Information: from Deep Creek Campground, Great Smokey Mountains National Park

drive or hike to the trailhead at the turnaround
follow the Deep Creek Trail (obviously an old road) with the creek to your right
just before the small bridge across Indian Creek, follow the Indian Creek Trail to the right
watch for a small sign for the falls
follow the narrow, switchbacked trail to the foot of the falls

Monday, May 25, 2015

Soque River falls

5/25/2015 - took advantage of the day off to find a falls I knew about but had not seen. I did go out before to check it out, but you can't see it from the road. This falls is on posted private property, but my sister and I got lucky and as we drove by the caretaker's husband was there and took us down to the base of the falls.

This falls is near Demorest.

Directions and Information: near Demorest, GA...on posted private property

Friday, May 22, 2015

Williams Mill Greenspace

5/22/2015 - had off half a day today, so I took a nice, short trip to the Williams Mill Greenspace in Hall County. My sister had discovered there is a sizable waterfall there, so I had to see it! She sure wasn't kidding. I would think if there's a drought that this creek might go dry, but right now there is a good amount of water coming down over this huge rock face.

I found the best place to see the entire falls is right behind the caretakers house. The back of the house overlooks the falls. But you can keep going and get much closer than I did today.

GPS: 34.12934 -83.90525

Directions and Information: from I985

Exit 8 - Friendship Road, GA 347
south on Friendship road to light at Hog Mountain Rd
north (left) on Hog Mountain Rd
south (right) on Blackjack Rd
park is on the right
follow the paved trail down to just past the house, right at .2 miles...falls is to the left

Monday, April 13, 2015

Rice Creek falls at Victoria Bryant State Park

4/10/2015 - spend the weekend at Victoria Bryant State Park with a group from Trail Dames. Nice, easy weekend...beautiful weather. Took a couple of short hikes and the first was to the falls to get a video.

9/8/2012 - went to the TrailDames hike leader retreat this weekend and during a short hike up Rice Creek we came to this waterfall. Thank goodness I had my camera with me!
GPS: 34.29676° -83.15998°

http://www.gastateparks.org/VictoriaBryant

Directions and Information: from I85 North to Victoria Bryant State Park

at Exit 160 - turn south onto Hwy 51
at T junction with Hwy 145 - turn right
at T junction with US 29/Hwy 8 - turn left
park entrance is to the left
falls is in Rice Creek - behind and below the nature center