The Great Outdoors: June 2008

This was a fun quick hike. Dukes Creek Falls is located just north of Helen on Richard B. Russel Parkway. It's a nice 1.9 mile hike along a wide trail to the bottom where you see Dukes Creek and Davis Creek join together in several sets of falls.

Here's the view from the parking lot towards Yonah Mtn.... Cherokee for The Sleeping Bear. You can KIND OF see what they are talking about.

The first portion of the trail is actually wheelchair accessible down to the upper overlook deck. From there it branches off down a set of stairs to see another portion of cascades. Funny side note, this picture was taken just before a couple coming up the trail in the opposite direction of us told us that they had a black bear charge down the hill within about 20' of them. Luckily for them it jumped over the trail and kept going down hill.... luckily for us, we didn't see him when we got to the bottom of the hill.

A view looking down from the top of the trail.

A view from the bottom deck up towards the upper deck.

A view looking towards the lower deck.

The last place on the Canyon Climbers List is Providence Canyon located outside of Columbus, GA. It's a nice little ride from home, but well worth the trip. These canyons were formed back in the 1800's from poor soil management practices causing massive erosion throughout the area. from the pictures, you'd think that the canyon walls were made of stone, but at an up close and personal view, they are actually soil. Everytime it rains, the canyon slowly widens.

Actually, the white layer of these walls aren't granular like sand....it feels more like a gummy clay. We actually took a little back to camp with us and baked it like pottery over the campfire. Pretty neat stuff.

The trail into the back country campsites. We followed the red blazes down many stairs into what looks like a creek bed. These stairs probably go down several more feet but are completely buried by the sediment.

Yes... THIS is the trail. We followed this creek bed for a good ways until it finally turned and we climbed back up out of the canyon on the other side. Just one big hill and you were at the top of the rim.

Here we are at the edge of the rim. Once we set up camp, we ventured back into the canyon and ended up right below this area.

Take note on the sign...hehehee....

At the bottom of the canyon.

DANI! hehehe! Making her mark in the canyon.

A close up view of some of the layered soils. Almost looked like cake.

Such detail.... almost like another world down there.

This is what happens when you get too close to the edge.....

Taking it easy

Canyon Jumping.... kind of. The soils weren't as soft as the guys had said they were the last time they were there, but still fun to slide and jump around on.... probably not a good idea considering it doesn't HELP the erosion problem.

Our "primative" campsite. There is only one shelter out in the backcountry. The rest are set up for tents. Luckily for us, we got to this site first because we weren't prepared to backpack and our tent weighed more than Danielle. ; ) It was great.... right there in the middle of nature.... then the Coyotes started to surround us and it got a little scary, but they didn't get too close.

The next day we decided we wanted to take another way down the big "hill" to the creek. A path that was closer to our campsite. Saw some really neat areas like this wetland area.

Here's another creek we crossed before we joined back up on the red blazed trail. This one was a little tricky with our packs on and not too many branches to grab onto.

A view of the trail on the way back. I suggest you either bring 2 pairs of shoes so you aren't hiking out the next day in wet shoes, OR you wear shoes that can handle this amount of water.