Ward Creek falls at Camp Wahsega

10/28/2011 - went up to the Dahlonega area to find the waterfall at Camp Wahsega 4H camp.  This is pretty easy to find, it's about a mile past Camp Frank D. Merrill Ranger Camp.  It's easy to get to too and very pretty.  There's a wooden raceway down from the falls, like a minature mill raceway, that brings some of the water from the falls to fall down on a rock right at the corner of a deck.

This falls is on Ward Creek and is sometimes called Wedding Falls, but more usually it's just called Wahsega Falls.
GPS: 34°37'2"N 84°5'52"W

These 2 photos show the falls and part of the raceway, and then a view from below the deck that shows most of the raceway, and where it comes out at a corner of the deck.

Directions and Information: from Dahlonega, GA

• north on US 19 bypass
• right on Camp Wahsega Rd
• at Camp Merrill - left on Hightower Church Rd (turns to gravel just ahead)
• about 1 mile on left is sign for Camp Wahsega
• Go to the main office to request permission to be at the camp

Note: Please contact Wahsega to set up a visit.  The website is http://www.wahsega4h.org.

Panther Creek Falls (6 falls)

10/22/2011 - my pictures from 3 weeks ago didn't turn out very well, so my sister and I went back and hiked the shortcut to the falls - again for me, the first time for her.  Got much better pictures this time.  I still didn't get all the way to the bottom of the falls, but I got a lot closer.  The trail is in pretty bad shape and there was a climb that was about mid-thigh to me that I just didn't feel like I could make.

The lower falls is MUCH more impressive "in person" than it is in my photo.  Give the scope and size of the entire falls complex, this is a truly spectacular falls!

10/1/2011 - getting around to this update a bit late!  I went back to the shortcut to Panther Creek Falls again to see if I could find where I went wrong the last time.  I went slowly and realized I had missed a hard left turn.  Followed the trail to another hard left, and that one brought me out on the main trail along Panther Creek, just above the falls.  It's a long, steep down hill, so I went slowly...but even so, I was a bit shakey by the time I got to the creek. 

The falls are even more spectacular than photos show.  It's actually a 4 stage waterfall with a cascade at the top, then a slot falls that is so narrow at one place you can easily step across the entire creek, then a 2 stage sliding falls.  WELL worth the trip!

My pictures didn't turn out, except for one of the cascade at the top.  Guess I'll have to go back again!

As I was hiking back out and got to the top of the ridge, I found that someone had put a huge arrow pointing to the left, made out of small logs and branches.  I totally missed it on my way in!  It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but it must be a good 8-10 feet long!  Don't know how in the world I missed it going in.
GPS: 34°40'35"N 83°23'15"W (upper)
GPS: 34°40'21"N 83°23'7"W (lower, no picture yet)

5/21/2011 - went back to Panther Creek to get better pictures and GPS points.  Still didn't make it to the Panther Creek Falls.  It's just too far for me to get there and back in one day.  Someday though!  I did get a picture of a sliding falls that I had missed before.  And I realized that there are maybe 6-7 places along the creek where it sounds like there might be a falls, or at least a very noisy shoals, but you just can't see the creek due to the rhododendron, azalea, and mountain laurel bushes along the bank.

I did get to the first big falls, which the GPS said is at 3.15 miles, and got a better picture of that, but the best place to see and photograph it is from the top of the rocky area a little further downstream.  And the flowers were just blooming everywhere! 

5/23/2010 I've been trying to get to the Panther Creek Falls for years.  For many years I couldn't get there because the trail went up and over a 15 foot cliff.  It wasn't so much that I couldn't get up as it was that I was afraid of coming down.  The trail at that point is very narrow and on the edge of a steep hill down to the creek.  I could just envision, only too clearly, coming down and not being able to balance and just continuing right down the hill!

Anyway, in early in May I was told the trail had been rerouted around this point, so I just had to try it...and it has been!  Very nice reroute.  Only problem is that it's still too far to the falls.  They are almost smack dab in the middle of an 8 mile hike and while I think I could get there, it would be tough to get back to the trailhead.

But since I did get a lot further than ever before, I found there is a very pretty, long cascade somewhere in the gray area between a true falls and steep shoals.  So that will have to do until I can figure out how to get to the REAL falls!
GPS: 34°41'51"N 83°24'46"W
GPS: 34°40'40"N 83°23'55"W

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

Directions and Information: from Cornelia, GA

• north on GA 365/US 23/US 441
• US 441 joins at Baldwin/Cornelia
• north on US 441 towards Tallulah Falls
• left on Glen Hardman Rd
• right on Old US 441 (my map shows this as county rd 648)
• at turn into Panther Creek picnic area there is parking on the right that is free
• trail is across creek - headed downstream

Note: the falls are at about the 3.5 mile point, I've never actually been there.  Parts of the trail need care as you have to duck under large overhanging rocks.  The trail goes to a T-junction at the bottom of the hill about 1/4 (?) mile from the start and is not marked, but the trail you want goes to the left.  The shoals/falls in my picture is at 3.15 miiles.  At a point about 1 mile there is a bridge across the creek, and the trail continues on the other side of the creek from the starting side.

Directions and Information: from Cornelia, GA - shortcut

• north on GA 365/US 23/US 441
• US 441 joins at Baldwin/Cornelia
• north on US 441 towards Tallulah Falls
• right on John Wood Rd
• at 4 way stop, continue straight on Camp Yonah Rd
• at 2.4 miles, look for cleared area on right, park here
• trail is across road - at power pole GPS: 34°40'11"N 83°23'7"W

Note: the trail is fairly easy downhill.  Just after narrow ridge crossing, there is a sharp left turn at GPS: 34°40'28"N 83°23'7"W (this is where the big arrow was located the day I was there) and the trail begins a long, steep downhill, then another sharp left at GPS: 34°40'28"N 83°23'7"W and it meets the main trail at GPS: 34°40'33"N 83°23'14"W

Mill Creek Falls (2 falls)

10/15/2011 - drove up to the Cohutta Wilderness to see Barnes Creek Falls again, and to find the falls on Mill Creek.  Turned out to be a long drive, but these falls can be seen from a trail leading out of the camping area at Hickey Gap and there is a sign for the gap...but if you are driving downhill on the road the sign has it's back to you.  Apparently they don't think people drive downhill around there!

The campground was small, but seemed very nice.  The trail is short, but narrow and rough, lots of rocks and roots.  There were 2 falls, and between them a sizable extended shoal with lots of small falls.  The trail brings you out at the rocks at the top of the 2nd falls and you can scramble down the hill further to get to the bottom of the falls.

At the bottom, the creek makes a hard right turn and some other hikers said there is another falls "quite a ways" down stream - which must be the one Mr. Anthony refers to as being a further 1/2 mile hike.  They said the trail to the bottom was steep and very slippery due to the rain, so I didn't attempt the hike this time.  Maybe later, when it's dryer.
GPS: 34°53'34"N 84°40'18"W
GPS: 34°53'33"N 84°40'18"W

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

Directions and Information: from Chatsworth, GA

•  north on US 441 to Crandall, GA
• right on Grassy Street
• right on Crandall Ellijay Rd
• left on Mill Creek Rd
• at Hickey Gap, right into campground
• trail is past large rocks in campsite downstream 

Note: there is a toilet building in this campground

Davis Creek falls (Gilmer County)

10/15/2011 - went back to Barnes Creek Falls to get the GPS points. 

6/13/2010 There 2 falls are fairly close together, near Ft Mountain State Park

Davis Creek Falls-Gilmer County is a small waterfall just beyond a lake, and is on private property.  It can be viewed, distantly, from the nearest road - but I don't yet have a good picture of it.  I did try later to get one - after I got a camera with a zoom lens, but at that time the waterfall was dry.  Will have to try again.

http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/falls/davis-creek-falls.html

Directions and Information: from Ellijay, Ga

• west on GA 52
• left on Pleasant Hill Rd
• watch for lake on the right
• falls is distantly visible after you pass the lake, on the right

Note: Mr Anthony says 1 mile down Pleasant Hill Rd, but I found it's a bit further than that.  The last time I was there, the falls were dry and difficult to see.  The falls are on private property and I saw no way to get closer to them.  When you pass the lake dam, stop and look along and past the dam to the hill beyond.

Roxann Falls

10/14/2011 - went back to get the GPS coordinates and found that this trail is now POSTED - No Trespassing

2/20/2011 - went back to this falls to get some better pictures.  There has been some heavy machinery go down the road/trail to the falls.  Moved a big downed tree out of the way and filled in some badly eroded spots.

12/1/2010 I finally found this falls!   This one has taken me months to find.  I found several sites with photos and videos but none of them had any actual directions.  I found a clue here - it's in an upscale mountain subdivision called Apple Pie Ridge (http://www.landspecialties.com/applepie/); and another one there - that the subdivision has a small parking area for it; another clue elsewhere - that it was below the dam at the lake...and after several trips to find it I put the clues together with what I saw on the ground and found it!

One of the roads in Apple Pie Ridge ends at a county water treatment plant and THAT is where the trail to the falls starts.  It's an old road that winds down into the valley and ends at a farm road that goes to private property to the right, and to the falls to the left. 

 

The trail to this falls is now POSTED - No Trespassing