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Our next stop would be in another state park just across the state line into Georgia at Tallulah Gorge SP. As the crow flies, it’s just over 40 miles between campgrounds but the shortest travel route is closer to 65 miles. Unfortunately that route isn’t suitable for our size rig so our travel day will be a little over 100 miles. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t on some narrow and curvy roads but we make it there without incident. This state park is similar to Table Rock in the sense that the campground roads are narrow and difficult to navigate with the motorhome but at least our actual site is much more level. The unusual aspect of this park is that the campground entrance is before you actually go through the entrance booth and has its own entry gate with a keypad. Fortunately our reservation email included the code so we were able to get in, setup and then go to the visitor center to register for our 6 night stay. A bit odd, but it works.
We have never been to this part of Georgia before so we decide to use our first full day to drive around the surrounding countryside and see some sights and grab some geocaches in counties we don’t have yet. We start out heading north then west. Our first stop is at the Popcorn Overlook on US-76. It was unclear the origins of the name but it did have a pretty view and a geocache for county #1.
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| Popcorn Overlook |
As we head west to the town of Hiawassee for our second county we stop at a roadside park along the the river in town. From the looks of some of the homes in the area, what I expected to be a small, rural Georgia town turns out to be a rather nice resort area.
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| Overlooking Hiawassee River |
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| Locust in Bloom |
Another stop in Hiawassee is at a place called Bell Mountain. There is a virtual geocache there which only requires a photo for proof. Pictures we saw from the top looked to be worth the couple mile detour. The first mile doesn’t gain much elevation and there are a fair number of homes. The last mile or so really starts to climb and becomes a rather narrow and curvy road. At least it was paved and we only came upon one vehicle making its way downhill. There was a parking area a tenth of a mile from the top and while the road did continue but we weren’t sure if there would be parking up there so we parked the Jeep and hoofed it up the remaining distance gaining another 100 feet of elevation - roughly a 19% grade!
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| Overlook at Bell Mountain |
It turns out there is plenty of parking and even a couple other vehicles there. The views are amazing but the thing that really stands out is the enormous amount of graffiti on just about every surface.
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| View from Bell Mountain |
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| Lots of Graffiti |
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| Other Direction |
At the one end of the parking area is a wooden staircase and boardwalk that covers a few hundred feet in length and another 60 feet of elevation. It was quite a spot to get to and had there not been a geocache here, we undoubtedly would have never found it on our own. From all the graffiti, it’s obvious that the locals are quite familiar with Bell Mountain. On the drive down, I was curious how steep the bulk of the road was I displayed the Jeep’s pitch and roll screen. The highest number we saw was 16 degrees which is nearly 29% grade but we only got a picture when it was a mere 15 degrees!
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| Stairs to Upper Viewpoint |
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| Nice View and More Graffiti |
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| And the Jeep Heads Down Bell Mountain |
As we continue on our loop around northeast Georgia, we make a stop in Blairsville for a cute cache at a large church for county #3. The plan is to head south on US-19 and stop at some water falls to eat our lunch and get in a short hike. It is a very twisty and hilly road that is quite scenic. Along the way we notice a sign for the Appalachian Trail and a neat old building. We were able to slow down and make it into the parking lot to check it out. Turns out to be a business called Mountain Crossings and is roughly 31 miles north of the beginning of the AT at Springer Mountain Georgia. The building dates from 1937 when the AT was completed. Since 1980, it has been run as an outdoor outfitter for thru hikers on the trail.
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| Mountain Crossings |
We head inside to check it out and find a very well stocked store given its rural setting. We look around and chat with the owner and tell him we had visited Mount Katahdin Maine last fall - 2154 trail miles to the north. We had noticed the large tree out front was covered with hundreds of old hiking boots and asked him about it. He said that many northbound hikers that come past here have discovered that they had poor or ill fitting boots in the 30 miles it took to get here and they end up buying new boots. They used to toss their old ones in the tree but he has now asked them to not do so. After any storm, he says he arrives to find several pairs that have come down. We didn’t find anything we really needed but it was definitely a cool place to stop at.
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| Boot Tree! |
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| Inside Store |
After our short detour, we continue to the south for a bit of walk at DeSoto Falls. We had an EarthCache at the falls as well as a traditional geocache. From the cache description, we knew there was both an upper and lower falls to check out and it would be about a 2 mile hike. We were kind of expecting a poorly maintained and overgrown trail given the remote location but we were pleased to find that it is part of the DeSoto Falls Recreation Area with a decent parking lot for day use and even about 2 dozen primitive campsites. The trail starts near the camping area and we cross the creek and head uphill first towards the upper falls.
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| Crossing Over Creek |
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| Heading to Upper DeSoto Falls |
The trail was in great shape and we managed to find the geocache hidden in 2003 in good shape on our way there - county #4. We make it to the large viewing platform that is just below the falls.
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| Viewing Platform at Upper Falls |
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| Upper DeSoto Falls |
It was an easy hike back down towards the lower falls. But when we arrived near the campground the sign for them pointed us back uphill. We were confused for awhile but this was a much shorter trail and we discovered that the two falls were on separate creeks thus both are uphill from the campground area. It felt good to stretch the legs a bit on today’s drive.
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| Lower DeSoto Falls |
Our original route plan had us continue the loop back towards Tallulah Falls stopping for one more county see a neat train at a book store near the town of Yonah. But it was still early so we decided to explore some more and head to a couple more counties further to the south. Neither of these stops were noteworthy but they did bring us up to 7 new Georgia counties today. On the drive, we stopped for an ice cream break at a Mountain Fresh Creamery which had a beautiful barn and a very big cow! It was a fun and tiring day.
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| Choo Choo |
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| Big Moo |
The next day was a bit rainy in the morning but was expected to improve in the afternoon. After lunch, we drive down to check out the visitor center while we wait for the rain to stop. They have a very nice building and a theater with a movie about the gorge running through the park.
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| Tallulah Gorge SP Visitor Center |
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| Appalachian Display |
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| Animals of the Region |
The main hike in the park goes along both north and south rims with numerous overlooks to the various falls below. Plus there are stairs leading down into the gorge, a suspension bridge and stair up the opposite side. The full loop is 2.6 miles and has 620 feet of elevation gain. By the time we get out of the visitor center the rain was mostly stopped so we geared up for a hike. Being on the north side of the gorge, we first head towards the eastern part of the park with several overlooks as well as Inspiration Point. One of the stops along the way is the toppled over steel tower and concrete base that was used by Karl Wallenda to support a tightrope that he walked across way back on July 18, 1970.
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| View of Tallulah Gorge |
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| Suspension Bridge Over Falls |
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| Toppled Tightrope Tower |
Inspiration Point has a large rock outcropping with fencing to prevent a fatal fall. The view of the falls below are decent too. By now the rain was completely stopped and it looked like we should be clear to complete the rest of the hike.
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| Inspiration Point Overlook |
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| View at Inspiration Point |
We backtrack on the North Rim Trail past the visitor center and continue east. At overlook #3, we get a great view of one of the more impressive falls in the park. L’eau d’Or Falls is a 46 foot drop in multiple stages.
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| Best Falls View of the Hike |
From this overlook, we could either continue on the North Rim Trail or head down the stairs in to the gorge. Since we want to get to the suspension bridge over the Tallulah River, we can either head down here and up the other side or vice versa. There are a lot of steps down and back up whichever way you do it so we go down on this side. The sign on this side states 310 stairs to the bottom. It is a rather impressive staircase with sturdy metal treads that are actually adequately deep for someone with long feet. It is also wide enough to allow people coming up to pass without any problem.
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| Down We Go |
The suspension bridge is about 60 feet long and is 80 feet above the water below. Hurricane Falls is just below the bridge.
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| Crossing the Suspension Bridge |
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| Lock Collection Started on Bridge Cables |
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| Distant Overlook on South Rim Trail |
After the bridge, we head towards the Hurricane Falls platform. This is the area where visitors can have access to the gorge floor starting near these falls and downstream. Permits are required to enter the gorge and there are numerous regulations about receiving one of the 100 daily permits. There was nobody in the gorge today since the rainy morning weather meant there were no permits being issued today.
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| Gorge View at Platform |
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| Hurricane Falls |
From here, we have 568 stairs up to the South Rim Trail. We counted more than that, but our number was in the within 20 or so. There are several overlooks to both the east and west. We head east to check out overlooks 8, 9, and 10. There are some decent views at two of them.
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| Vibrant Iris |
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| Overlook #8 |
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| Another Falls View |
The trail basically ends at overlook 10, so we turn around and work our way back towards the US Route 441 which has a bridge over the river just below the dam. Before crossing over the bridge to the campground side of the gorge, we head out of the parking area towards town to check out the old general store and find a geocache hidden there. Fortunately the trail on either side of the gorge has a way to cross below the highway instead of playing Frogger with the fast moving traffic.
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| Mural Along Trail |
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| View of Tallulah Gorge |
From the western side of the bridge, there is a nice view of the dam and the outlet that feeds water into the gorge below. At times they sound an alarm and open up the release gate to have more water flowing. The normal flow is in the 35 to 40 cubic feet per second but they will increase the flow to 200 cfs for aesthetic releases. One weekend a year, they bump the flow up to 500 and 700 cfs and allow people to white water kayak on the river! We eventually made our way back to the visitor center with a total of 4.3 miles and over 950 feet of elevation gain - significantly more than what we originally expected but very fun nonetheless.
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| View of Dam |
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| Water From Dam |
Chris had one special place she wanted to visit during our stop in this part of Georgia. So the following day we drive up to a place called Firefox. In high school she had an English class project to collect oral histories from old people. Having no relatives in the area, she resorted to going to the local retirement home and ask who would like to be interviewed with a tape recorder. The English project was based the Foxfire books of oral histories collected in Appalachian foothills of Georgia. Not too far from camp is the Firefox Museum. It is a 106 acre property with over 20 historic buildings that represents life in the southern Appalachians in the 1820’s to 1940’s.
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| Foxfire Visitor Center |
The tour of the grounds starts at the visitors center and is self guided. There are plenty of interpretive signs at each spot along the way. It definitely is not a handicap accessible place. Often the path is just a trail in the woods between the buildings.
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| Cabin on Hill |
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| Rustic Interior |
There was a lot to see and learn here. Scaldin’ Hogs was one aspect of Appalachian life I was unfamiliar with. Before butchering the hogs, scalding hot water was poured over them to make the hair removal easier. Many of the buildings are open and have all sorts of displays where we learn about skills that were used such as barrel making.
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| Hog Scaldin' Pot |
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| Coopering Display |
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| Covered Wagon |
At the blacksmith’s shop, a worker had just arrived to drop off some supplies to help expand the capabilities of the shop for some of the training events they hold over the year. At the far end of the loop is the children’s village. There are several small scale buildings of cabins, a church and other out buildings. We had been told to explore but it’s imperative to duck when entering any of them.
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| Blacksmith Shop |
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| Unusual Artwork |
As we headed back down the hill on the other side of the property, we get to the chapel. Is is a fairly large log building with minimal decorations except for the small stained glass windows.
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| Church at Foxfire |
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| Stained Glass in Church |
The grist mill was pretty interesting. The internal drive mechanism was gearing made of wood! The outside water wheel was being completely rebuilt.
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| Wooden Gears |
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| Water Wheel Rebuild |
The weaving studio was the only building that had a live person working their craft. The woman has several different size looms and spinning wheels. Not all of them are period pieces but she actually makes crafts for sale in the shop so I suppose she needs to have somewhat modern equipment to turn a profit. We chat with her for quite a long time. We had seen no other visitors during our visit and she likely was lonely. When she found out about our nearly 9 years of nomadic lifestyle, she had all sorts of questions since she is trying to convince her husband to do some RV traveling when he retires in a couple years. We gave her all sorts of advice to help them make it work out.
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| Loom |
One of the last buildings was dedicated to the history of Firefox Press showing off some of the old equipment and techniques used to produce the magazine with all the stories students had collected from older locals. It was an interesting place to spend the morning and I know Chris was thrilled to have worked this into our travel plans.
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| Foxfire Press Display |
Firefox happens to be right next to Black Rock Mountain State Park and we knew it had several hiking trails that sounded interesting. We believed our day use pass for our state park campground would gain us access to this place as well so we continued the drive up the mountain. Coming from Foxfire did mean we were taking less traveled roads and as luck would have it, the department of transportation was spreading gravel on the road. Fortunately we were able to get past the road grader and make it back onto the main road into the park. The guy at the entrance booth gave us the thumbs up when we showed him our pass and we head to the visitor center. The Blue Ridge Overlook has an amazing view of Mountain City below and worked as a great spot to enjoy our lunch before checking out the visitors center.
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| Overlook at Black Rock Mountain SP |
We head into the visitor center and look around as well as asking the park rangers about some of the more remote sections of the park to gauge how bad the roads are to get to them. For our first hike, we drive partway down the mountain to the trailhead for the Tennessee Rock Trail. Listed as a moderate loop of 2.3 miles and just over 550 feet of elevation. This state park only has a couple of geocaches hidden along the trails so we had selected the this and another trail based on that fact. Near the trailhead, there is a split to the much longer and harder James Edmonds Trail - we stay to the left and start our hike.
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| Left Onto Tennessee Rock Trail |
It was a pretty hike and the trail was in generally great shape. The spring wildflowers were definitely doing well. The violets were quite prevalent but other less obvious flowers were around if we just keep our eyes open.
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| Violet |
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| May Apple Bloom |
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| Deep Red Trillium |
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| Pink Trillium |
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| Chickweed |
Most of the hike is in the woods with minimal distance views but there was one very nice overlook along the way. A trail marker informed us we were crossing the Eastern Continental Divide and another told us we had reached the summit. At the one geocache, we found the rock that the container was supposed to be hidden behind and the rock did look look like a snapping turtle as described in the hint but no cache was found. Oh well it still got us to a nice trail.
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| Eastern Continental Divide |
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| View from Tennessee Rock Overlook |
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| Turtle Rock but No Cache |
It was midafternoon so we still had time to get in our second hike in the park. We stop at the Cowee Overlook on our drive down the mountain which has a nice view of the southern Appalachians. There were lots of azaleas in bloom too.
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| Colorful Azalea Blooms |
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| Cowee Overlook View |
The dirt road back to Black Rock Lake was in fine shape and provided access to the trailhead parking lot. The trail around the lake is just under a mile and flat but it still is a very pretty setting.
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| At Edge of Black Rock Lake |
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| Flame Azalea |
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| Lake View |
The geocache hidden along this trail was easy to find and took us right past a pink lady slipper in bloom.
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| Pink Lady Slipper |
Towards the far end of the lake, we found the main turtle hangout. There were quite a few smaller ones balanced on dead branches just above the water. As we passed by them on the trail all but one was spooked and took the dive to escape us.
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| Turtles |
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| All But One Splashed in Lake |
The return rail along the north side of the lake was more open but also provided nice views of the hills around the lake. It was an easy hike but pretty and capped off a nice day.
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| Trail Along North Side |
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| Blue-eyed Grass |
The following day was predicted to have very nice weather so we picked some hikes to water falls. In this part of Georgia, we don’t need to drive far to satisfy that goal. The first hike - Panther Falls and Angel Falls - is just on the north side of Lake Rabun. It’s only about 5 miles as the crow flies but it is about twice that distance to drive since there are limited bridges across the long and winding lake. The trail is a 2.2 mile out and back hike with just over 400 feet of elevation gain. We had two geocaches to look for on the hike. The first one was before we get to either falls.
What seemed like the obvious trail took us within a few hundred feet of the caches and we headed into the open woods and found it without a problem. When we got back to the trail, we continued on but after a couple tenths of a mile, the trail started to get less pronounced. We checked our maps and realized we were on the wrong trail. We turned around to determine where we missed the trail and came upon a single hiker heading up the same trail we were on. We probably should have realized that this guy had also likely missed the turn but we weren’t positive yet so we said nothing but hello. We spotted the correct trail on the other side of a small creek crossing. A tree had fallen down but the creek and had pretty much obscured the trail sign or even the trail - no wonder we missed it.
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| Bridge |
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| Trail and Sign Barely Visible |
We found Panther Falls a short time later. It has a very nice cascade.
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| Panther Falls |
Angel Falls is maybe another half mile up the trail. There is a small loop trail that heads up both sides of the creek below the falls. Either approach works since there is a nice wooden bridge just below the falls allowing easy access to both half of the loop.
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| Angel Falls |
As we start our way back down the trail, Chris spots what I first mistook for a small snake on a fallen log. But when she mentions that there are two heads, I realized there were two skinks. These guys were very colorful. As we continued down the trail, we came upon the guy we saw heading the wrong way. We stopped to talk with him and he went a great deal further on the wrong trail and only realized his error when he reached a gate with a no trespassing sign. If we had only known for sure of our error at the time, we could have saved him a lot of extra hiking. This is a pretty hike with lots of smaller cascades all along the hike.
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| A Pair of Skinks |
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| Smaller Cascades |
Our next hike is less than a mile from the first one but unfortunately on the other side of the lake. This turns into a 20 minutes drive on some very curvy roads. The Minnehaha Falls trailhead has room for several cars and we are not the only ones here. This trail is only about a half mile out and back and has less than 100 feet of elevation gain. A good portion of the elevation is from the stairs at the very beginning of the hike. The trail more or less follows the creek so there are some decent views of smaller cascades along the way as well as the sound of rushing water.
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| Beginning of Trail to Minnehaha Falls |
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| Creek Along the Trail |
We arrived at the falls and found them to be quite impressive. There was another couple sitting on a log near the base of the falls. They didn’t seem to notice us but we needed to look for a geocache nearby and it was going to be rather obvious we were up to something. So Chris walked up to talk to them and explain what I was doing as I searched behind rocks and trees in their field of view. They wished us luck and headed back. We spent another 10 minutes but came up empty. Oh well at least Minnehaha Falls were nice.
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| Minnehaha Falls |
For our last full day we head to another falls hike but this time to a place a bit further away. Hemlock Falls is about a 22 mile drive northwest of camp very near Moccasin Creek State Park. The trail to the falls is about 2 miles out and back and 250 feet of elevation gain. This turned out to be quite the popular hike. There were nearly a dozen other cars in the parking lot when we arrived. The trail was in fairly good shape with a few wet and muddy spot. Like many waterfall trails, it too follows a creek so there are nice views nearly the whole hike up to the falls.
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| Starting Up Wooded Trail to Falls |
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| Trail Follows Creek |
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| Trillium |
There is a bridge over the creek at a small cascade and a short time later we arrived at Hemlock Falls and find a couple groups of people milling about.
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| Bridge Along Hike |
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| Hemlock Falls |
After they all got their pictures, we had the falls to ourselves at least for awhile until other groups showed up. It is definitely a pretty place to check out.
The road up to the Hemlock Falls parking lot starts right by the Lake Burton Fish Hatchery. We always seem to enjoys visiting these types of places. When we first got there, it didn’t look to be open, there were no people wandering around so we assumed it was closed. But when we got to the gate, we found it to be open so we head in. It isn’t a huge place with 4 sets of raceways. Much of it was roped off so there really wasn’t much to see.
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| Lake Burton Fish Hatchery |
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| Fish Races |
We were just about to leave when an employee walked out and introduced himself. He gave us a very brief introduction to the work done at this trout hatchery and let us in behind the ropes to see some of the rainbow and brown trout.
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| Full of Fish |
We started to talk with him in more detail and mentioned some of the hatcheries we had visited in North Carolina and Colorado. Once he realized we were more than the typical visitor, we decided to give us a more in depth tour. Of course, we might have been the only people that had stopped to visit and he was bored too. First we went in to see the trucks that they use when they head out to stock a river or creek in the area. We got a good handle on how the process works.
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| Fish Delivery Truck |
We next head into another large building. This one had several smaller plastic tanks that had hundreds of young fingerlings swimming around. One of the tanks was empty so we could see how the drain and watering system was plumbed.
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| Inside Tanks |
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| Empty Tank |
In another room were all sorts of trays that are used when they are starting with fish eggs. He explains how the trays can hold many hundreds and the important thing is that there is constant running water much like they would experience if they had been deposited in creeks and streams in the wild. We definitely learned a lot from our tour of the hatchery.
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| Egg Trays |
After finishing up at the hatchery, we headed over to Moccasin Creek State Park. It isn’t a really big place and really only has a campground and beach area but not trails or other amenities. It does look to be a nice campground with many full hookup sites but from the sounds of it of it, they are hard to get into unless you plan well in advance.
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| Moccasin Creek State Park Campground |
We did a short hike up to find a geocache just west of the park. We end up walking past the dam that is used by the hatchery to direct water into all of their facilities to have fresh water constantly flowing through the tanks.
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| Dam for Hatchery Water |
Our 6 nights at Tallulah Gorge State Park went quickly. We really enjoyed visiting this part of northern Georgia. The area with all of the waterfall hikes reminded us of the mountain areas surrounding Asheville NC, but with fewer hikers crowding the trails. Next we headed to far northwestern Georgia to a state park we did a spectacular hike in back in the fall of 2021. But this time we will camp in Cloudland Canyon.
