Fall Creek Falls, Dawson County

This was a really neat find. Chris and I were in the mood to do some hiking this past weekend but we didn't want to go to the same ol' places that we normally go to. Wanted to change things up. SO.... we found this really cool website called http://www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/ and were able to just pick and choose what waterfall in what county we wanted to visit. The directions and trail information is a little vague, but overall VERY COOL!

The trail to Fall Creek Falls (yes, that's it's name) can be found at ALMOST the end of Monument Road on the Pickens (?) and Dawson County line. Pretty much drive up to Amicalola Falls but turn off before you get there. Not too bad of a drive along Monument Road.... really nice houses and great views. The parking lot sneaks up on you on the left. In fact, we missed it because we weren't sure if that was it or not. NO ONE was there.... it's just a small grassy/ gravel lot with a kiosk at the entrance. You follow the gravel logging trail all the way to the bottom of the mountain (Burnt Mountain). It's a steep trail. I pretty much jogged my way down, but huffed and puffed my way up, but the view of those waterfalls were worth it. Especially without anyone around. You can get some really good shots of it without someone standing in the way.

The Middle Falls. There are actually 3 sets of falls, but you can't really see the upper falls as you climb down the trail and the lower falls aren't as big as these, so we just kind of came and saw the middle falls and left. They look a lot larger than you think.

A close up of the bottom portion of the falls.

The trail leading to the falls. Pretty well kept so I'm thinking we must have come to visit when people don't normally go. Or something.

The steep trail up..... let me tell ya... if you aren't in shape to go up that steep of a grade for, I don't know, we guessed close to 3.5 miles, then this MIGHT NOT be a trail to start on.

The logging road up the parking lot. This was about 10 minutes BEFORE Chris saw a black bear on the trail. Yep, for those of you that know him, Chris described the bear as being a "small horse version of Bailey"...hehehehe my parents' cat. hehehe! Unfortunately, Chris's excitement scared the bear down the hill so neither of us were able to take pictures of it.

DuPont State Forest, NC

This place is AMAZING! It's between Brevard and Henderson, NC.. I'd say close to 10 minutes or so from mom and dad's house. Like a hidden treasure in the mountains that you'd never know unless you were looking for it. MASSIVE waterfalls throughout these trails and the coolest thing is, you can actually walk up to them. Most if not all places in GA have decks that restrict you from getting too close to the waterfalls. North Carolina is different. And it's cool!

Here's our hiking crew. We went up the weekend of Halloween and got there in prime leaf changing time. So beautiful up there. Here we are overlooking one set of falls.

To get an idea of the size of these falls, look dead center of them and you can see a person standing in the middle of them.


Here's us in the middle section of this set of falls. People actually go and swim around in them too.

Here's a whole other set of falls with a covered bridge at the top.

The water was splashing down so hard that you walk away from there wet.

In fact, you can see and feel the mist from here and I'd guess we were about 50 yards away from the base.


Also, even though you can walk up to the falls, be careful where you step because the rocks are very slippery.


Walking up and past these falls is an old covered bridge. The horse and bike trails connect here and we lucked out to see several horse riders here taking a break.

A view of the stream before it gets to the top of the falls. It looks so peaceful here.

Pretty fall colors.

Horses!!!

Connestee Falls, NC

Mom and Dad were really lucky to live up in Brevard, NC for a few years. Their neighborhood, that is very similar to a very mountainous version of Big Canoe, is named Connestee Falls after the HUGE falls at the beginning of the neighborhood. Here are a few pictures from the various trips we've taken. One in particular, we decided we'd go off the trail and slide downhill to see what the bottom of the waterfalls look like. AMAZING!




Little bridge to cross over on the way to the waterfalls overlook.


And here they are. The falls actually drop down past this but you can't see it past the overlook. At the bottom of the falls, you really can't see up towards the top of the falls either because it makes a turn somewhere in between.



Megan, Dani, and Steve


Big ice storm on this trip. Megan and Caitlin at the same overlook.



HA! Here's what they called the caves. Not really a cave... more like an overhang.




Snowy trail


Caitlin and Marquardt playing with the ice.

Here's the area that we decided to hop off the trail. It doesn't look too steep here, but that's just the mountain laurel getting in the way. We pretty much had to use the trees as ladders or just sit on our butts and slide down hill. We also didn't go up this way to get out. We took the old hiking trail that was closed- for some reason.


The bottom of the falls. Such pretty shoals coming from them. So peaceful. This is what I want in my backyard one day.







Believe it or not, this is actually the bottom of the falls. You can't even tell that there are such a huge set of falls above these.

This picture gives the falls some scale.

Looking up towards the bottom of the falls.

This is us on the upper portion of the falls....where we aren't supposed to be. HA!

And this is us getting back to the car with a note from dad fussing at us for getting off the trail. hehehe! He must have saw us on the falls.

Such a beautiful place!