The story below is an excerpt from our May/June 2018 issue. For the rest of this story and more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
The three options to explore north Georgia’s 1,200-foot-deep Tallulah Gorge offer every walker a chance to experience the drama of the falls.
When You Go
The Hike: A moderately strenuous 2-mile circuit hike above and into Tallulah Gorge, via metal staircases with close to 1,000 steps.
Getting There: Follow U.S. 23 southward from Clayton for almost 11 miles, turn left onto Jane Hurt Yarn Road, and continue into the state park.
More Information: A handout map with trail descriptions is available from the park’s interpretive center or on gastateparks.org/TallulahGorge
One of my earliest childhood memories is gazing into West Virginia’s New River Gorge for the first time and someone explaining to me that it was the power of flowing water that had created such an incredible, and beautiful, chasm in the earth. I was truly in awe.
Decades later that sense of awe returned when Laurie and I stood on the porch of the Tallulah Point Overlook gift shop and we grasped that we would be walking into Georgia’s 1,200-foot-deep Tallulah Gorge.
Tallulah Gorge State Park provides two ways to descend into the canyon. The most strenuous option, which requires obtaining a permit, follows an untrailed route across the gorge floor, going over boulders and roots before fording the river and ascending the steep gorge wall to the opposite rim. We chose the moderately strenuous option where we negotiated more than 1,000 metal steps to explore the gorge’s inner reaches.
Overlooks 2 and 3 provided soaring (and near vertigo-inducing) views of the L’Eau d’Or and Tempesta falls crashing and roaring hundreds of feet below. As stunning as nature’s scenery was, we couldn’t help but be amazed by the human engineering feat of the metal staircase that enabled us to safely descend the vertical gorge wall. Just as amazing was the “swinging” bridge suspended 80 feet above the river, allowing us to, once again, marvel at the power of this waterway. (By the way, for those intimidated by such bridges, know that this one is anchored by numerous sturdy cables that permit it to barely sway.)
