The next Sunday after
we visited Amicalola Falls, we decided to keep crossing off the list of the
Top 10 Trails to Waterfalls in Georgia. This time we
picked another extremely popular waterfall area to visit – Hurricane Falls Trail at the Tallulah Gorge. We have driven by the gorge countless times,
but never took the time to stop and explore.
As we pulled into the parking lot early Sunday morning, we were excited to see that we
had beat the crowd at this popular Georgia park.
We start down the path of the
trail, and it looks very promising.
There is a very well kept recycled rubber pathway around the top rim of
the Gorge. We stop at the first view
point and gaze down into the gorge and then across to a small platform across
the gorge much like the one we are on. We
couldn’t possibly be going all the way over there, could we? This is only a two mile hike! After walking to a few more viewpoints down
into the Gorge, we begin the descent. Like
last week at Amicalola, the descent isn’t bad.
No one ever complains about going DOWN stairs. Fairly quickly, we reach the bottom of the
staircase and walk across the suspension bridge to the other side of the gorge. I walk behind my husband and love watching
baby girl look from his back over the side of the bridge. She’s in awe because she’s never seen
anything like this.
 |
Suspension Bridge at Tallulah Gorge |
 |
Walking across the suspension bridge at Tallulah Gorge |
Across the suspension bridge, down
a few more flights of stairs, and suddenly we are at the bottom of the Gorge
viewing Hurricane Falls. The platform at
the bottom is starting to get crowded and my husband stops about 30 steps from
the bottom and says “Do you want to just go back up?” I say no, we might as well go to the bottom
since we made it this far. We were glad
we did, as we came around the corner of the bottom, the full view of Hurricane
Falls comes into view which we didn't realize we would be able to see at the point we pondered heading back up. There is a path
off to the right that is closed off as some days you can go further down to the
gorge floor, but due to weather conditions the gorge floor was closed on this
particular day that we visited.
 |
Hurricane Falls |
 |
Hurricane Falls at Tallulah Gorge |
Even though we couldn't get to the gorge floor, viewing the falls
from the platform is beautiful. We spend
a few moments enjoying the "natural air conditioning" of the mist coming off the
falls. It’s strange in hot, humid
Georgia how cool and relaxing the mist of the cold mountain water is coming off
a waterfall. Then we remember – We have
to climb all the way to the top of the gorge.
It won’t be hard, right? Coming
down was easy. We made it to the top,
but it took a few rest breaks along the way.
The stairs are nearly straight up the side of the gorge and when we reach the top of the gorge, we will
have traveled 1,099 steps in all. Bless
my husband, he did this all with baby girl on his back.
As gorgeous as the waterfall was from the gorge floor,
I preferred the views from the top of the gorge. From the top you can see all of the small
waterfalls coming off the sides of the gorge walls, as well as the big
waterfalls at the bottom. For a moment,
it feels like you are somewhere completely different than North Georgia.

Again, it is only a 2 mile hike
in all, but the 1,099 steps straight down and up in the middle make it seem
much, much longer.
 |
View of the marina while eating at the Chophouse on Lake Burton |
After we left Tallulah Gorge, our
plan was to visit the antique shops in the small quaint mountain town of
Dillard. But as we were driving north to
Dillard, an idea popped into my husband’s head.
“Why don’t you see if there is a restaurant to eat at on Lake
Burton?” Lake Burton is a clear
beautiful mountain lake only 20-30 minutes from the gorge where many of the
well-known names in Georgia have lake houses.
With a quick search on TripAdvisor, I find a spot on the lake called The
Chophouse. Sitting down at our table at
The Chophouse, we know we have made the right last-minute decision. We sit at a table in the open air dining area
overlooking the marina and my husband comments that it felt like we were on
vacation. Indeed, it didn’t feel like we
were just a couple hours from home. It
was an unusual June day for Georgia as it was overcast and cool. The breeze coming off the lake was perfect.
 |
Enjoying Sunday Brunch at Lake Burton |
Feeling refreshed from lunch, and
with a whole afternoon to spare, we decided to cross off one of the other small
hikes on the Top 10 list near Helen. So
we set the GPS and headed towards Helen to find High Shoals Falls. We were a little surprised when traveling
down the dirt road that leads to the trailhead to find a small creek that we
were to drive over. It was at this point
we realized we were definitely somewhere more remote than the first two state
park waterfalls. But, adventurers at
heart, we forged ahead and found the trailhead.