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.