Monday, August 29, 2011

Hemlock Falls & Amicalola State Park

So, we left the lovely Wildcat Creek  camground headed to find some waterfalls.
Tripp wanted mountains and waterfalls.
So, he got it!
We happily obliged, too.





This part up the mountain was easy and wide.
But it was quite a trek. I was sore the next day.
It probably didn't help that I busted it on a rock at the waterfall.
Prettiness along the trail
Tripp wondered it this was the start of a bear cave.
Nice, cold trickle for a much needed break from the heat.

We crossed over a little bridge and saw this nice teaser waterfall.
Our little hiker in action
Ah! We made it!
It looks small in the pics, but it was pretty high. I didn't think to get a picture with one of us by it for perspective.
The added loveliness was the perfect pool in front of it to swim in before it plunged down the mountain again behind us. It was such a treat after the hike up.






And, there would be more pics than these, but remember when I said I slipped and fell on a rock?
Yeah, well that was here.
On a rock that shifted
In the water
And me and the camera both went under.
So, no more pictures until the now disassembled camera dried.

From Hemlock Falls, we drove through the cool, albeit touristy, German Alpine town of Helen, GA and on towards Amicalola Falls.
We decided to go there to see the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi River and because it had a lodge at the State Park.
We added on this night of our stay b/c we were really enjoying ourselves and wanted to explore a little more. It poured on us when we camped the night before at Moccasin Creek. Between that and adding on to our stay, everything was wet or extremely dirty.
So we upgraded our camping to the lodge and it was a treat.

The whole back of the lodge is essentially a window with the most gorgeous view!
Let's just say, We'll be back for those Autumn colors!
Can you imagine that view?!

After several days away from home and taking entirely too many pics as well as being "off the grid" some of the time, we spent our final day exploring sans a charged camera battery. We even plowed through the juice in the spare. I was disappointed but at least we had the phone!!
 The only picture with the real camera...along the trail to the waterfall, up on the mountain, you can see this old moonshining truck that crashed and tumbled, and subsequently got stuck, trying to escape the cops.
Pretty cool.

 This camera phone pic doesn't even do the beauty and size justice...
Check out more pics, that aren't mine, here.



 looking down on the top of the waterfall.



You can hike to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail from the state park.
This approach trail is a mere 8.5 gorgeous miles. You can even stay here at the Hike Inn.
A quaint lodge only to be reached by the 5 mile hiking trail.

So that concludes our North Georgian adventure.
We will return.
Sooner rather than Later.

No comments:

Post a Comment