Amicalola Falls

​Today we decided to go to the tallest falls of Georgia.  From the highest point to the base of the Amicalola falls is 729 feet.

​The hike to the top starts at the reflecting pool at the base.  At first it was just a steep walk. That is for a few 100 feet then it starts a climb of stairs for the rest.

The first set is 175 steps then after the bridge across to the other bank then...

the next set is 425 steps.  A total of 600 steps. YES that was 600 steps.

Of course that was not enough for us. We took a hike up to the Lodge and then a loop trail from there.  We had to get back to the truck so we took the East Ridge Trail down. Then back to the parking lot along a portion of the Appalachian Trail.  A total of 3.5 miles and almost all of that rated as strenuous.  There were some pretty views on the hike back down.

It’s official we have seen our first snake on the trip.  No really, we have not seen any snakes since we started even with all the hiking. We think it was an Eastern Ribbon Snake.

For hikers of the Appalachian Trail this is the southern end point. The trail officially starts 8.5 miles from the park but no one thinks of it that way because the official end point is nowhere near a road or anything else for that matter.  We passed the terminus stone and a shelter along the way.