I've moved up to Cloudland State Park way up in the northeast corner of Georgia at the western edge of Lookout Mountain. A deep gorge, up to 1,000 feet deep has been cut through the sandstone and limestone walls by Sitton Gulch Creek.
The picnic area has great views of the west rim of the gorge. The West Rim starts by the cottages to the left of the picnic area. .2 miles after starting down the it divided with the to the waterfalls going off to the right and the West Rim going to the left. I thought the waterfall s would go all the way to the bottom of the gorge and would be tough coming back up. For that reason I chose that first.
Actually it turned out to be 2 s, one to each waterfall. Or rather, 2 wooden walkways and steps that had recently been completed. The wall along the first walkway was all layered, as if someone had stacked very large slabs of limestone on top of each other to form a ragged wall.
I was enjoying the cool breeze blowing through the gorge when I came upon a huge, bald, overhanging boulder jutting out from the hillside over the . Slabs supported it from below and a log bench had been placed under it.
The walkway to the first waterfall descended .1 miles with large boulders strewn about on one side and slabs stacked 80-90 feet on the other. A series of small, cascading waterfalls led a short distance up to a 40-50 foot waterfall dropping into a 40 foot wide pool.
Some recent rain provided enough water to make this a very pretty scene. More impressive were the 70 foot high walls encircling half the pool. Ferns, mosses, vines and grasses grew from cracks and crevasses while a few small trees clung precariously to slim footholds they had established on the wall. A fair amount of sticks, twigs and other natural debris had accumulated from some pretty heavy flooding of the pool in times gone by. It would appear the whole basin had filled up during some really big storm.
After trudging back up the steps, I followed the walkway down to the second waterfall along a moss covered sandstone rock wall rising 30-100 feet above me. Water fell from the top of this 50 foot waterfall into a small unseen pool behind a large boulder 20 feet high. Other, larger boulders lay haphazardly nearby on the creek bed. With normal water flow, everything would be much more attractive with water cascading over and under rocks and ledges.
I got back to the waterfall fork in the in about an hour or so. I took my time coming up the .3 miles of steps from the second waterfall. I rested when ever the ol' ticker started ticking a little too fast. I stood at the fork for a minute or two trying to decide if I should call it a day after all those steps or continue onto the 4.7 mile West Rim . I decided maybe I'd go out on the for an hour or so and then retrace my steps and complete the another day.
I immediately came to rhododendrons with just a couple purple flowers left among some shriveled and dried up ones. What I took to be mountain laurels also were dropping the last of their small white flowers on the . The Smokey Mountains have entire mountain sides covered with rhododendrons and mountain laurel. I had been told they bloom there in mid-June and was hoping to get there in time for that. That would be really beautiful but I won't make it in time this year. Something else to look forward to. Many large holly trees and (probably) hemlocks lined the too.
The was fairly easy and I soon came upon a neat little cave. Surrounded by 6 inch slabs of sandstone was a 8X10 foot cave maybe 3 feet high. It would have made a perfect shelter except it was very damp with mud and moss covering the floor.
The wound along some 30+ foot cliffs with occasional views of the east rim across the gorge. Then I came to some ledges with wonderful views up and down the gorge and out into a valley floor. I thought I'd take a break here and admire the views and then call it a day retrace my steps. As I watched, a hawk circled down in the gorge and then moved higher. Watching a hawk hunting food from above is a different experience. You usually have to look way up at them, not down.
I was feeling pretty good after the break so decided to continue on. I'm glad I did. The continued along the west rim (hence the 's name, duh). Every 100-200 feet or so there was another turnout for another great view. I could also see a fork where another gorge appeared to lead into the main one.
The looped back when the west rim apparently ended. I followed the as it looped back. Nothing exciting presented itself so if I had the chance to do this again I'd simply turn around when the looped and retrace my way back along the rim. Much more interesting.
This hike was a definite keeper.