Cloudland Canyon falls (13 falls)

9/29/2012 - spent the weekend at Cloudland Canyon.  Wanted to do the hike from the bottom of the canyon back up towards the top.  The parking area was easy to find, the Visitor Center has very good instructions on how to get there.  As I hiked up the trail I realized I was walking along a DRY watercourse and I thought "Oh NO!  Don't tell me I've come here and there's no water in the creek!" - but I had to keep reminding myself that I could clearly hear water going over the big falls at the top of the canyon, when I walked along the rim trail!

And sure enough, I got past the dry course and found the creek coming out of the canyon.  There weren't any big falls for as far as I got, but there were several smaller ones.  There are some HUGE rocks in the creek, reminded me of parts of the Upper Tallulah River, which also has some huge rocks in the water.

The trail "rollercoasters" it's way up the canyon.  It starts with a long, easy, flat hike...then there's a fairly long uphill, then a shorter downhill, then another like set and then another.  I didn't get as far up as I'd hoped I would.  When I faced a 4th rollercoaster hill I had to give up and go back to the van.

12/5/2010 I've been wanting to do these for a long time, but since I had been to 2 falls in the same area this year (Glen Falls and Keown Falls) that were dry, I waited until we had a good rain...then I called the park office to be SURE the water was flowing!  Then my sister and I drove up to see them.

This is a tough hike if you're not in good shape.  It's not all that long, but it's something like 600 steps down - and, of course, 600 back up.  I'm not in the best shape myself, but taking it slow and easy, we did the whole trail to the falls and back in 2 hours - not too bad.  There are lots of benches where you can rest if you need to.  Falls #1 & #2 are on side trails as you go down.  The others are along the creek above & below the bridge that crosses the creek.  The one I've labeled #4 is actually under the bridge, so the best place to see it is from the platform lower down after you cross the bridge.

This park has 2 showpiece falls (pictures #1 & #2) but there are several others that are much smaller, but still pretty, and maybe even more than we saw that day - but we just didn't have time to do the other trail at the bottom of the valley that went further down the creek.  Some other day maybe.  Mr. Anthony only has the 2 showpiece falls on his site.

The last photo is not of a falls that can be seen in the valley.  It's visible from an overlook near the parking area and cascades down the wall of the gorge.

These falls are all on Sutton Gulch Creek

NOTE: the park had a contest to name to 2 biggest falls and they are now:
Cherokee Falls for #1
Hemlock Falls for #2 (kind of a shame they chose this one, that makes 4 falls in GA named Hemlock Falls!)

 

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/cloudlandfalls1.html

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/cloudlandfalls2.html

 

Cloudland Canyon - lower creek:

(because of the location of some of these falls, and the weather conditions (in and out of clouds) it was hard to get good, clear pictures of some of these falls)

GPS:34.84932°N 85.47819°W
GPS: 34.84843°N 85.47807°W
 

 

GPS: 34.84607°N 85.47787°W

GPS: 34.84485°N 85.47888°W

 

GPS: 34.84459°N 85.47886°W

GPS: 34.84401°N 85.47872°W

 

GPS: 34.84221°N 85.47847°W

  



Directions and information: can be found at the Cloudland Canyon website: http://www.gastateparks.org/CloudlandCanyon