More Waterfalls, and an Alpine Village in the Georgia mountains

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 79, low 57)

 

When we visited Tallulah Gorge State Park back in August with Bill and Nancy, we were told that on certain week-ends they had water releases from the dam.  All the lakes and rivers around here are controlled by a series of dams.

At Tallulah, they have ascetic water releases on most week-ends in September an October.  In November, they have a couple of major releases for the whitewater rafting events.   We would love to see that, but we’re not sure we’ll still be here in November.

We decided to take a run down to Tallulah yesterday and see how different it was with more water running through the gorge.

Here is a photo from overlook 2 yesterday.

Here is the same spot back in August. 

This is the spillover from the dam yesterday.

You could really see the difference from August.

On the way to Tallulah, we stopped at another waterfall that we had heard about.

It’s in the little town of Toccoa Falls and the waterfalls is on the college campus.

It’s a short walk to the falls from the visitor center.

It’s another beautiful waterfall.    186 feet.

There were way too many people, but that’s what we get for going on a week-end.

In 1977, the dam that held the lake back broke, flooding the area below. It killed 39 people and injured 60.

Not a pleasant thought standing in the same area.

We discovered nearby Currahee Military Museum, and considered visiting, but decided to do it another day, as we were running out of time and still had another place to go.

 

Our other planned stop was to visit the nearby town called “Alpine Helen.”

They were having an arts and craft show to kick off the Oktoberfest celebration, which started yesterday (September),  and runs through November, I think. Oktoberfest???

It turned out to be a mistake, because there were such big crowds.   It reminded me a little of Key West.  There were lots of musicians playing, some street performers and of course lots of people.

Helen, is a pretty little town, but not really our cup of tea.  Still, if you’re up in this area, you should see Helen at least once.

 

 

I threw in a few pictures from last year, before the Oktoberfest crowds.  I had trouble getting decent pictures yesterday due to all the cars and people.

 

We found a place to park, and walked through the craft show, which was minimal.

We did enjoy listening to the different bands playing.

The busses continually ran through carrying tubes for the people who wanted to float down the river.

This is a cropped shot of this guy.  I swear he was holding a baby all wrapped up in a blanket.  He is the one laying down on his back on this float.  If it was a baby, it must have been a very young one.  He almost tipped over several time, when he came to the rapids.

 

This street performer was amazing.  He didn’t move a muscle until you put money in his bucket.

Apparently, he works out a lot!  :)

He had a friend that was all painted in gold. His hair shimmered in the sun and it was quite pretty, but the sun was not at the right angle so I never got a picture.

The horse drawn carriages were quite busy.   I felt a little sorry for the horses.

 

We managed to kill another day, left tired, and headed home via some squiggly mountain roads.

When we got home, we were surprised to find Merikay and Craig all tucked into their spot in River’s Edge.   We knew they were coming, but we weren’t expecting them until the 22nd.  It was a nice surprise.  We went over and introduced ourselves, and took them for a happy hour ride on the golf cart. 

Welcome to Rivers Edge Merikay and Craig!

A Day of Waterfalls with Nancy and Bill

 

 

On Monday morning, Bill, Nancy, Al and I were on the road by 8:30 am, with plans to visit Tallulah Gorge State Park.  The gorge is two miles long,  nearly 1,000 feet deep and a favorite of locals and tourists.

It had gotten down into the 50’s the night before, so the cooler air made for some interesting clouds over the mountains as we were driving.

 

We planned on a scenic drive along Track Rock Gap road, but Al got turned around and we ended up almost right back where we started.    I’m sure Nancy will tell you more about our little “detour” in her post.     In all fairness to Al, it WAS scenic!

We arrived at Tallulah Falls State Park and went to the very nice visitor center to get some trail info.  There is a 15 minute film that runs every half hour, but we opted to see if after the hike, due to the timing.

There is a canyon floor hike which takes you down a series of steps.  You have to get a permit to hike this trail and they only allow 100 per day.

 

HURRICANE FALLS LOOP TRAIL (hikers only, no pets)
Approximately 2 miles, round-trip. Mulched with metal stairs. Rated difficult.
• This trail has a total of 1,099 stairs (including staircase to gorge floor)
• Please do not attempt this trail if you have any known health condition
• Please do not leave children unattended.
• No pets allowed on this trail.

 

We don’t particularly like steps, so Al and I had no desire to take this hike.   Nancy and Bill probably would have enjoyed that trail, but they knew we weren't up for it, so we decided to do the rim trails.

It was a little chilly when we arrived and I wondered if I should have brought a light jacket.  We saw no sun until after we finished the hike, but we warmed up quickly when we started walking.  It was a perfect day for hiking with temps only in the 70’s.

There is a north and south canyon rim trail and they don’t meet, so you have to back track to do them both.  We ended up with about 3.5 miles by the time we finished. None of it was difficult but there were some elevation changes.

It started with a pretty steep climb, but the trail was nicely padded with mulch.

 

This is one of the towers he used on his tightrope walk.

Here is a picture of him doing handstands.  I snapped it when we were watching the film about the park.  

It is a looooong way down!

We saw the other tower when we walked to the opposite side of the canyon.

The canyon and waterfalls are amazing, but my photos do not capture them very well at all.  Nancy had a SLR camera, so hopefully her pictures will be better.

There were several overlook points with some pretty amazing views.

We intend to go back in the fall when the fall colors are at their peak.

The next picture is a zoomed in shot of the stairs that were on the canyon floor trail.  It was a long way to the bottom

Bill doesn’t get too close to the edge of the canyon, but Nancy doesn’t seem to mind.

There were many different waterfalls all along the canyon and many rocks  that were dry, but looked as if water had previously flowed down them.

 

We finally spotted the dam. You can see the water flowing through holes in it. 

 

The warning sign near where you access the canyon floor was certainly large enough, don’t you think?

 

The trail led over the dam and along the highway!  That was sure a surprise that this was a part of the hike.

The other side of the gorge.

more scenic overlooks

 

I thought this looked like a bear, but it was some sort of growth on the tree.

 

The rocky cliffs looked completely different on this side of the gorge.

 

There were a lot of pretty colored rocks and caverns.

 

 

Looking down into the canyon, we saw these pretty pinecones on the tops of many trees.

After we left Tallulah Falls, we decided to have lunch at Zaxby’s.  Thanks Bill and Nancy for treating!

While stopped at a light, we noticed this interesting tree.  It was amazing.

It was a gorgeous tree, but I’m not sure what it is.  It was HUGE!

 

We still had plenty of time, and Anna Ruby Falls was on the way home, so we decided to go there and take half mile paved trail to the falls.

We got in free with our Geezer pass.

There is flowing water all along the trail with the main waterfall at the end.

 

Nancy and I found an active hornets nest laying on the ground.

The waterfall is about 153 feet high, and hard to get the entire thing in one photo.

 

We found a  very cooperative butterfly outside the visitor center.

Nancy worked real hard and I’m sure her pictures turned out  much better than mine.

 

He stayed there all the time we were taking his picture and Nancy even was able to give him a little thank you pat for his cooperation.

The bees really liked this flower and they were also very cooperative.

It was a fun day, with nice people and we had a great time.   We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather, even though we didn’t see much sun.

Nancy and Bill left today, but  I’m sure we’ll meet up again somewhere down the road.

Thanks for visiting Nancy and Bill.  We enjoyed meeting you.