Day 23 - Toccoa Falls & Tallulah Gorge, GA

Today we left the big city of Atlanta behind and headed into the wild, literally! We spent the last couple of days watching Tropical Storm Alberto on the weather channel and whilst he has reduced from a sub tropical storm to a depression, his tail bits were headed right over the areas of Georgia we are headed to for 2 nights camping!

First stop was Toccoa Falls in the far north east of Georgia. I didn’t realise until we saw the falls the history that went with them. The falls are located in Toccoa Falls College, a Christian Liberal Arts College. Until 1977, the falls had been dammed off at the top but on one night after a lot of rain, the dam broke and 176 million gallons of water fell onto the college residential area killing 39 people and injuring many others. Since that night, they haven’t replaced the dam but left the waterfall to run where it now stands.

The waterfall itself was breath taking. We were not expecting anything so big or so powerful. I think Alberto had probably helped here, dumping so much rain in the area, the falls were full of water. The rain stopped for us whilst we visited the waterfall but the spray was so heavy, we were both glad to be in wet weather gear.

Next stop was Tallulah Gorge, the Grand Canyon of the Eest. By some miracle, the rain stopped just as we got to the campsite and we managed to get the tent up in time before it poured down again.

We had planned to do a couple of hiking trails in and around the gorge. Determined not to let a little bit (or a lot!) of rain get in our way, we threw on our wet weather gear and headed off.

This was a good test of water proofs which did struggle with the amount of water. We both had wet arms and damp bodies but we could have been a lot wetter! I think we need to given them an extra spray of waterproof stuff before the next storm!

We walked the trail along the north rim all the way to Inspiration Point. The walk was tough as it was on wood chip and stones with rivers and lakes of water building up from the rain, but we had a lot of fun.

We then hiked down the steps to the bottom of the gorge on the south side, via the swing bridge. The river seemed to be flowing faster and faster during our walk. We later found out that it was! They’d opened a sluice on the dam as so much rain had fallen!

On a sunny day, you can buy a permit to cross the river which would usually be a small trickle. Today, the crossing was closed!

The extra water added to the magic of the river and the gorge, it sounds strange but I am glad we came to see this place on such a wet day.

We hiked around the south rim and back to the campsite to dry off and snooze. There was no campfire tonight, everything was soaking so we had leftover chicken in a sandwich for dinner.

Our hike was rated difficult, it involved 1026 steps to get down to the gorge and back up and we walked for about 7 miles in total. Both of our legs were shaking by the time we’d finished. I think we can feel happy with ourselves for getting some good exercise in!