I've moved over to the Tallulah Gorge area near the South Carolina border. I'm camped just a couple of miles north of the Tallulah Gorge State Park. I stopped by the park this morning to pick up some hiking information. They wanted a $4 parking fee and since parking fees at Georgia State Parks are free on Wednesday, I decided to wait till then.
Less than four miles down US 23/441 is the Panther Creek Recreation Area of the Chattahoochee National Forest. This is a 7 mile round trip to Panther Creek Falls or a 14-16 mile round trip to Yonah Lake.
The head is across the road from the parking area and passes under US 23/441. It then started a gradual descent and I immediately started mumbling to myself. I'd have to ascend back up the at the end of the hike, be even sweatier, mumble, mumble.
The entire wanders alongside Panther Creek or climbs hills and you can look down on the creek. The sound of water rushing over rocks follows the entire way. Lots of good strong cascading waterfalls, chutes and shoals are everywhere.
I noticed 5-10 cleared campsites along the way that would hold from 1-3 tents. Three of the sites had campers on them on this Monday morning.
30 minutes brought me to a short scramble up a rock face. It was steep and high enough so you'd bounce a time or two before hitting the steep slope below if you fell.
Several bridges spanned little rivulets and several others had rock paths across. What was really surprising to me was that there was any water at all in any of the tiny streams.
80 minutes into the hike the creek made a sharp right. A sheer 20 foot rock wall rose out of the creek bed. Another 15 feet of bluffs and overhangs sat back just far enough from the wall for the to pass narrowly along it. A wire (cable) guard rail helped keep the wobbly, old folks on the .
At 11am I came to a good size cascading waterfall and decided that must be Panther Creek Falls. A fair amount of water passed over a series of descending ledges stretching 50 feet or so downstream and dropping about 10 feet in that distance. The water then is forced into a narrower series of ledges descending still farther and faster yet.
A large outcrop at the base of the larger falls proved to be too great a temptation. I had an early lunch and a nice nap, listening to the water pour down the falls. After the nap I decided to at least follow the on down to the bottom of the falls before starting back.
I quickly came to a pool about 5 feet across that flowed off into nothing but air. The led away from the creek briefly and narrowed down to nothing and even that was eroding away in places. Another guardrail made me feel a lot better going down.
I descended to a large (big enough for 3-4 tents) camping area where a father and son were in the process of breaking camp. They graciously allowed me to view 'their' waterfall as the water tumbled 60-70 feet in 2-3 stages into a large pool at the bottom. So I guess this was the real Panther Creek Waterfall.
The father told me the area was filled with campers over the weekend but most of them had disappeared by Sunday night. Campsites don't get much better than that one.
One the way back I saw another nice falls I'd missed on the way in. This one poured over several ledges dropping about 20 feet within 100 feet.
Overhanging slabs projected out over the in several locations. I took extra care around them. I didn't want to bang into one with the backpack and get thrown off balance at an inopportune time.