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Amicalola Falls State Park July 28, 2015
ChemEd 2015's first event did not start until 4 pm, so I left my hotel at 9:30 am to drive to Amicalola Falls State Park, near Dawsonville, Georgia. (My favorite waterfall-hunting website is this one: http://www.gowaterfalling.com/)
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The Appalachian Trail
starts/ends at Springer Mountain, Georgia, and Amicalola Falls State
Park offers the approach trail to there, so there was this Appalachian
Trail registration board! (I got to walk a few minutes of the Appalachian Trail in Harpers Ferry, WV, in 2010!) | By this arch was the "hot" photo to get--I had to wait for several groups ahead of me, and one of the women was kind enough to take my photo. Only 2108.5 miles to go to Mt. Katahdin, Maine! |
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| The trail started out as a pleasant walk through the shady woods. I was here at 11 am. | Fifteen minutes later, the trail pitched uphill, and I felt like I was at the Whirlpool in Niagara Falls! |
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| First sight of Amicalola Falls! | They are not kidding! This is only the first of two sets of stairs (the smaller set), and in the Georgia mid-day heat, I was a ball of sweat! |
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| A quarter of the way to the top! | The falls as seen from the half-way-up bridge! |
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| More stairs . . . a lot more stairs! I was here at 11:30 am. | The peaceful top of the falls! I was here at 11:54 am. |
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| I had hiked for an hour on a very hot day, so I bought a water at the lodge to prepare for the hike back. | I missed the very subtle sign on the left (on the fence, says East Ridge Trail) the first time and hiked up to the lodge and back because of it. It was 12:18 pm at this point. |
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| The trail was easy walking at first! | The trail deteriorated quickly (becoming much rougher than this), so much so that I thought I had somehow missed a turn and was walking down a drainage ditch. A man and his son were behind me, and they assured me I was on the right trail! |
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| There were a few spectacular ridge views from the trail! | At the end of the drainage-ditch-like trail, it changed to a more standard nature trail. It was 12:45 pm at this point. |
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| What caused this fascinating bend in the tree?!? | Back at the visitor center just after 1 pm! |
| I really enjoyed my two hours at Amicalola Falls State Park! It is difficult to get to but worth the effort! On the way there, I got to drive past a lot of Georgia's marble industry (which I knew nothing about before my visit). I got Chick-Fil-A for lunch on the way back to Kennesaw. | |