Panther Creek Falls

Saturday morning, we had one last breakfast at Hofer’s and then finished packing our stuff up. After checking out of the hotel, we started making our way home, but not before stopping for one more waterfall hike. Near Clarkesville, we stopped at the Panther Creek Recreation Area of Chattahoochee National Forest. Although the sky was cloudy, there was little rain. From the parking area, we crossed the street and then went under the bridge on US-441, following the creek downstream. In about a mile, there was a split in the trail, and we followed the blue-blazed trail that stays closer to the creek and headed down to see the First Waterfall on Panther Creek.

After a couple pictures, we finished up the blue-blazed trail and connected back with the main Panther Creek Trail a quarter-mile or so from the split. This first part of the hike was rather steep and narrow and required some climbing over wet and slippery rocks. Afterwards, however, it started to level off, following the creek more closely on a wider path. In about another mile, we came to the Second Waterfall on Panther Creek, a series of shoals and cascades.

Although not terribly high, these falls were very powerful and we found a couple different spots to get pictures from. It was another mile to the main falls and the trail started getting more narrow, steep, and rocky as we progressed. At points, there was fencing on the side of the trail to prevent a fall into the creek. Of course as the trail started getting more difficult, it started to rain, making this hike even more difficult. At one point as we neared Panther Creek Falls, we found shelter under rock outcrop from the rain, hoping to wait it out. But the rain didn’t seem to be lightening up, so we continued on. The very last part of the trail was the most difficult, especially in the rain. This part involved climbing over, under, and around slick rocks to get down to a good viewing place at the base of the falls. Although there was some fencing to help prevent a fall, this was particularly treacherous in the rain. Surprisingly, we actually saw some trail runners at this point and backpackers climbing back up with all their gear. If they can do this running or carrying a backpack, surely we can do it hiking, I thought to myself. Finally, we reached a clearing at the base of the waterfall. Panther Creek Falls is nearly a 100 feet tall and almost as wide, with significant water flow.

It was really an impressive waterfall, but given the weather, we didn't spend as much time here as we would have liked. After we got some pictures and videos, we started making our way back up. With the wet rocks, this was a bit of a challenge, but we made it safely. This is definitely not a trail for people with a fear of heights.

We also stopped at the Waterfall at the Top of Panther Creek Falls and to view the cascades above the waterfalls, then started making our way back.

Just about when we reached the easier part of the trail, the rain finally died down. Of course when it doesn’t matter so much!

Soon we made it back to the car. We changed out of our wet clothes at the bathroom at the recreation area and then started making the drive home along I-85. We stopped for dinner at Fatz in Gaffney, SC, just below the Peachoid water tower, and arrived home after a waterfall-tastic week late in the evening.

More Waterfalls near Helen

Friday was our last full day in Helen and it was a dreary day. But we weren’t going to let that stop us from getting more waterfalls. Our first stop was the DeSoto Falls Recreation Area in Chattahoochee National Forest. From Helen, we got on GA-75 Alt North and followed that to GA-11/US-129 North. The recreation area was about 11 miles down this road. After paying the day-use fee, we started out on the trail amid a heavy fog, though it wasn't raining. According to sign at the trailhead, the waterfall is named for Hernando DeSoto who explored the region in the 16th century. A piece of armor believed to have belonged to the explorer was discovered near the falls in the 1880s. From the trailhead, we first turned left and hiked about a quarter-mile to the lower falls. Just below the lower falls was another smaller waterfall, Hidden Falls.

There was no good viewing spot, but we could mostly see it from the trail. Lower DeSoto Falls was just past this and we could get a good view from a viewing deck at the end of the trail.

After we stopped for Hidden and Lower Falls, we continued the other way on the trail to the Upper Falls, a beautiful multi-tiered waterfall. The highest tier was difficult to see due to the fog, but also gave the waterfall a mysterious and spooky feel.

When we were done, we headed back to the car and headed to our next waterfall. We continued driving north on US-129 and turned right on Helton Creek Road. In about 2 miles, we pulled off to the side of the road and made the short hike up to see Lower and Upper Helton Creek Falls. There is a short trail that leads down from the road and then up towards the waterfalls.

About half way, a staircase leads down to rocks at the base of the Lower Falls.

After we got some pictures from here, we continued on up the trail to the wooden overlook for the Upper Falls.

On the hike back, we could see both waterfalls from some places along the trail, but they were partially obscured by the trees.

From here, we continued on Helton Creek and Hatchet Creek Roads to GA-348 and took this to GA-180 and GA-75 heading back towards Helen. After a couple of miles, we turned onto the gravel Chattahoochee Road (FS-44). Almost immediately, we made a quick stop to see Upper Spoilcane Creek Falls right on the side of the road. It was really foggy and hard to see, so we planned to stop on the way back as well if the visibility improved. We drove a couple more miles and pulled over again. We could hear the two waterfalls on Wilks Creek, but couldn’t see them well. We walked down the road a bit and found a safe place to head down to the creek and then bushwhacked up a bit to see the Upper and Lower Falls on Wilks Creek.

They were both decent-sized waterfalls but the heavy rhododendron prevented us from getting a great view.

From here, we continued down FS-44 to the Upper Chattahoochee River Campground and parked. Despite the poor weather, there were several groups camping here, some of whom had drove campers and RVs. I was impressed that they could get those large vehicles down the narrow, winding gravel forest road. Past the campsite, we first made the short hike to Horse Trough Falls, a beautiful 70-foot cascading waterfall on the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River.

The ledges over which the water cascades are angled, giving the waterfall a “crooked” look to it. When we were done at this waterfall, we hiked upstream along the Chattahoochee River a short ways to Upper Chattahoochee Falls. This is a 20 or so foot waterfall through a narrow sluice.

Here at the headwaters, the mighty Chattahoochee River is only a couple feet wide. We could only see the waterfall from the trail, however. There were very steep paths leading down to the base, but given the wet conditions, getting down would be dangerous and getting back up would be near impossible. So we got a couple pictures from the trail and then hiked back to the car. On the way out, the fog had lightened a bit and we stopped quickly to get a better shot of Upper Spoilcane Creek Falls.

Back on the paved roads, we headed back towards Helen, a little earlier than most nights. We walked around town a bit, hoping to do a bit of shopping. Unfortunately, many stores were closed or had limited hours during the off-season, but we did pick up some goodies from Hansel & Gretel Candy Shop. For our last dinner, we ate at Cowboys & Angels again, having the very tasty Avocado Burger. We even saw some rabbits frolicking amidst the landscaping outside. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and started getting our stuff packed up. Finishing the way day up, we were at more than 50 waterfalls for the week and still had a few more on our way back home tomorrow.

Tallulah Gorge

Thursday morning, we decide to change plans a bit. This would be the last day of nice weather, so we decided to head east and hit Tallulah Gorge. On the way, however, we wanted to get the waterfall that is perhaps Helen’s most famous - Anna Ruby Falls. After breakfast, we drove through Unicoi State Park to Anna Ruby Falls Recreation Area.  After paying the fee, we hiked down the short paved trail to see the two waterfalls - Curtis Creek Falls and York Creek Falls, which combine to form Anna Ruby Falls.

These waterfalls are named for Anna Ruby Nichols, the daughter of a Confederate solider.

The trail from the parking lot is about a half-mile and paved and made for a very scenic walk along Smith Creek with numerous small cascades along the way.

At the falls there were several wooden platforms to view the falls from different angles.

York Creek Falls, the smaller of the two is about 50 feet and Curtis Creek Falls is about 150 feet.

We got some pictures from various angles and then made our way back to the parking area. We stopped at the gift shop so Sandy could get a fleece pullover as a souvenir. Once we were done, we headed to Tallulah Gorge State Park. It was the last nice weather day of our trip and I was hoping we could hike in the gorge. Unfortunately, the gorge floor was closed due to “weather”. Since there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, low winds, and it hadn’t rained in at least a couple of days, I suspect they just didn’t want to open it during a weekday in the off-season. I checked with one of the rangers to determine which trails were open and then we started our hike. The trails here (except for the gorge floor) are extremely well-maintained so it’s almost a stretch to call it a hike. Most of the trails are mulch and a few were made from recycled tire rubber. Without going into the gorge floor, there were 10 overlooks with various views of the gorge for us to see. From the visitor center, we started on the North Rim Trail and hiked to Overlook 1.

We had nice views looking south into the gorge and could see Oceana Falls, although it was an awkward view from above.

The collapsed North Wallenda Tower was here, indicating the spot where tight-rope walker Karl Wallenda had walked across the gorge.

Quite impressive, considering it's about a 750-foot straight drop from here to the gorge floor. From here, we took the rather steep trail up to Inspiration Point for more nice views looking south into the gorge and better views of Oceana Falls.

Without a permit, we couldn’t go any further, so we headed back and headed towards the dam, stopping at Overlooks 3, 4, and 5.

Far below, Hawthorne Pool was visible, a very pretty green pool at the base of L’eau d’Or Falls (although no good views of the falls).

After stopping briefly at these overlooks, we continued to the South Rim Trail by crossing the dam along the highway.

From the South Rim Trail, we stopped at Overlooks 6 and 7, the latter having really good views of Tempesta Falls, then passed the stairs leading to the suspension bridge and stopped at Overlooks 8, 9, and 10, which are basically right next to each other.

From these overlooks, we could see Hurricane Falls in the distance, as well as Caledonia Cascade, a very tall, but low-flow waterfall cascading down the cliff face from near Overlook 1.

In fact, I think we crossed over the top of it when we went to that overlook. There were some really cool stone benches built into the rock face to sit and relax for a bit.

When we were done, we backtracked to the stairs leading down to the suspension bridge and started going down. At the bridge, we took even more steps down to the overlook for Hurricane Falls at the gorge floor, going as far as we were allowed without a permit.

We were pretty close to the falls here, but unfortunately, without a permit we couldn’t get really good views of the falls. So we began our climb up the stairs. The suspension bridge provided a nice break from the climbing, but once across, we had to climb even more. Near the top, we stopped at Overlook 2, the last one, to see L’eau d’Or Falls, a nice waterfall with three distinct sections.

After a few pictures, we finished the loop back to the Visitor Center. It was still relatively early, so on the way back to Helen, we stopped to visit Toccoa Falls. Although it’s on the private property of Toccoa Falls College, the college allows public access for a nominal $2 fee. We paid at the gift shop and walked back to see the waterfall. This was a really exceptional waterfall with a 180-foot plunge off a sheer cliff.

We walked around a bit and climbed on the boulders some to shoot the falls from different angles.

From the big rock near the falls, a rainbow was visible in the spray.

We stayed here for some time and then headed back. On our way back to Helen, we stopped at Hawg Wild in Clarkesville for barbeque. There is another Hawg Wild in Pisgah Forest, NC that we visit often when in the area. We had seen the place driving in and thought that they were the same restaurant. It turns out that they’re different restaurants, despite the same name. But regardless, the food was fantastic, service was great, and the portions were huge. I was eating the leftovers for about three days after we got home from our trip. A great surprise after our unpleasant dining experience at Troll Tavern the night before. After dinner, we made it back to Helen and walked around the little town for a bit before heading to bed.

Raven Cliff Wilderness

Wednesday, we were planning to hit some waterfalls closer to Helen, so not as much driving today. Our first stop was Raven Cliff Falls in the Raven Cliffs Wilderness of Chattahoochee National Forest. We headed northwest from town on GA-75 and GA-75A and then turned on GA-348 to the trailhead for Raven Cliff Falls and began our hike. The Raven Cliffs Trail runs for about 3 miles to its namesake waterfall along Dodd Creek, with three additional waterfalls on the way.  It was cold this morning and we saw some interesting ice formations along the trail and a few icicles hanging from spots near the waterfalls.

In less than a mile, we saw the First Waterfall on Dodd Creek, a smaller 20-foot cascade.

In about a mile, we got to the Second Waterfall on a nice plunge followed by a waterslide.

I scrambled down to get a picture from a distance to get the whole thing and then scrambled down again near the plunge to get a shot of just that part.

Then we got back on the trail and shortly came to the Third Waterfall on Dodd Creek, the largest before hitting Raven Cliff Falls.

There appeared to be a way down just above the falls, but as we started to make our way down, we realized this would have required scaling down a sheer rock face and looked very dangerous. So we backtracked just a bit and found another way to get down and hike up to the waterfall along the edge of the creek.

There were quite a few icicles hanging from a downed tree at the waterfall.

We got some nice pictures and looked up at that sheer rock face, which looked even more treacherous from below. It was definitely a good thing we didn’t try to go down that way. We got back on the trail and finished the hike to Raven Cliffs.

As the trail approached the cliffs and waterfall, it got much steeper, but we hardly noticed given the beautiful scenery. Raven Cliff Falls is a really beautiful and unique waterfall, with the creek plunging down through a narrow chasm in the cliff.

We spent a bit of time here, enjoying the views and trying to get pictures. It was a bit tricky given the lighting - a bright sunny day with light cliffs and the waterfall in the shadows of the charm - but we managed to get some good pictures.

When we were finished, we made the hike back to the parking area.

Before we left the area, however, there were a couple more waterfalls to get in the area. Driving about a half-mile down the gravel road, we pulled over at a pull-off near a primitive campsite and walked down to Davis Creek.

We were right at the top of Dukes Creek Falls (which is actually on Davis Creek) and got a view of the top of this enormous waterfall as well as Second Waterfall on Davis Creek that is just upstream of its much larger brother.

From here, we continued another half-mile on the gravel road and parked just before the road fords Davis Creek.

We hiked just a short ways to see Falls on Tributary of Davis Creek and Third Waterfall on Davis Creek, then headed back to the car.

Our next destination was just up the road at Dukes Creek Falls Recreation Area. We drove here and paid the day-use fee and then started hiking down the trail. Although somewhat steep, it was a well-maintained trail and very scenic. Almost immediately, there was an overlook that is handicapped-accessible, but the views of the falls weren’t great with many trees in the way. We continued down the switchbacks to a big wooden overlook at the base of the falls. To the north was Waterfall on Dukes Creek, a smaller but powerful waterfall right above the confluence of Dukes Creek and Davis Creek.

Dukes Creek Falls was enormous. Although it was somewhat blocked by trees, we still got amazing views of this waterfall from the overlook.

When we had finished, we hiked back up the trail.

It was getting into the evening, but we still had time for a couple more quick waterfalls. Back towards Helen, we turned on Poplar Stump Road to Chattahoochee River Road, a forest road that runs parallel to GA-17 on the opposite side of the river, and drove a couple miles. The paved road turned to gravel and after a few miles, we parked where the road crossed Double Culvert Branch. Although there wasn’t much of a trail, we hiked upstream along the creek. We got to Lower Double Culvert Branch Falls almost immediately and got a few pictures and then crossed the stream and continued up.

The hike up to Upper Double Culvert Branch Falls was a bit more tricky. There was almost no trail to follow and the banks of the creek were very steep. We made it as far as we could and got some pictures of the upper waterfall.

This was a pretty cool waterfall with two distinct streams of water plunging over the cliff face. As we hiked back down, the sun was setting over the mountain and made a nice picture with the two waterfalls partially visible below the setting sun over the cliffs above.

Back at the car, we made our way back to Helen and had dinner at Troll Tavern. Located right along the river, it seemed like a nice place to eat. Unfortunately, the food and service were poor, so we wouldn’t be eating there again. After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and went to bed.