Tallulah Falls, Georgia
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Today we left Asheville and started towards Florida. We made it into Georgia pretty early on and began seeing signs for waterfalls. We discovered that we were driving right through the Tallulah Falls area. If you don't know, Tallulah Falls are these 5 beautiful waterfalls that run through a very large gorge.
This gorge was actually the setting for that movie "Deliverance". Remember? Scary hicks and banjo music? Anyway, as absolutely beautiful as it is, I would not want to be trapped down there at night. So we pull up to the park and go to get a map of the trails. The ranger tells us that its about a 2 1/2 mile hike. That's nothing! Great! We'll be done in 30 minutes!
What he failed to mention is that there are these incredibly elaborate stairways that go up and down the gorge and are very difficult if you aren't used to the Georgia heat(which is BRUTAL!). So we start off walking and the first look out we come to looks out over the entire gorge. It is amazing! Also at this look out is an old steel tower that has been turned on its side.
The sign tells us that this tower was one of two that held up a tightrope. Apparently in 1875 this guy(I forget his name) walked across the gorge on a tightrope, doing 2 headstands during it. I don't even like ladders! So we continue until we come to the first set of stairs with a sign reading "There are 628 stairs to the suspension bridge. Do not attempt this if you have any medical conditions."
I'm thinking 628 isn't very that many steps and plus, its all down. First of all, going down that many steps is NOT easy. You start to become disoriented and its really hard on your knees. So we get to the suspension bridge and its awesome.
After we cross, we find that the stairs have only begun. We still have another 500 more to go to get to the bottom.
Once we make it to the bottom we get to see one of the waterfalls up close. We enjoy the beauty and decide its time to go back up. UGH! I forgot about the up part. After about 20 minutes of huffing and puffing and talking about 100 breaks, we make it to the top. VICTORY! we circle around the gorge and start the back half of the hike.
There is an amazing dam that next to the gorge. It that thing broke the gorge would make an impressive lake.
We return to the museum and quench our thirst(we completely forgot about bringing water on our hike...dumb dumb dumb). Despite almost needing to be carried out of the gorge, we made it!
