Other Waterfalls.

One day it was rainy and I had been planning on hiking to the summit of Blood Mountain. But I just didn't feel like doing that in the rain. It's not that I have a problem with hiking in wet weather, but the main reason I wanted to go to the summit of Blood Mountain was for the views. The peak is the highest on the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail and has a lot of exposed granite on the summit which is prime for great views of the north Georgia mountains. And I had not been up there since I was nineteen years old.

Instead of doing that and not being able to take panoramas of the high country, I got Carole to go along with me on some short, easy hikes to see some waterfalls. These were really easy hikes that anyone who is not disabled can do. Hikes of a mile or less and not much in the way of climbing or descending. What I like to call "sissy-approved" hikes.

The first one was to see two waterfalls at DeSoto Falls Scenic Area. It's actually just below Blood Mountain and features a campground that Carole and I wanted to scope out for future possibilities as a camping destination. Unfortunately for us, the water flow was really low for these waterfalls. I had seen them when I was a kid when the flows were good and they are normally spectacular. However, the day we were there the sights were less than impressive.

Next we drove over to Vogel State Park, one of Georgia's first state park facilities. There's also a waterfall there at the far end of Lake Trahlyta that always looks good because it's fed by the spillway from the lake's dam. It was up to its usual thing of being gorgeous, so that one was well worth the trip to see.

At the trail head to see the falls.

This is normally a gorgeous waterfall. Just not that day.

At the falls, to give you perspective on its size.

My ignorance of most things floral sometimes bugs me. I don't know what this is, but it covered a lot of the forest floor.

The trail is pretty nice.

The second falls. Again, the experience was not what it normally is because of low water flow.

The spillway at the far end of Lake Trahlyta.

I think that's Blood Mountain looming over the lake, but I'm not positive.

And the waterfall below the spillway. Gorgeous and worth seeing.

The falls at Lake Trahlyta.