Hiking Rabun Mountain / Tallulah Gorge
Hiking Rabun Mountain | Panther Falls | Tallulah Gorge State Park | January 2023
Today was our one full day in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, and we went into it with a few specific goals in mind. We wanted to visit every county on the Northern border (our maps would look weird if we didn’t), we wanted to hike to one peak on Curtis’ 300-Meter Prominence list, and we wanted to see some waterfalls. An additional goal that we came up with the day before was that we wanted to not drive on roads like the ones we took to get here. Thankfully the route Curtis had planned to his chosen peak in the Northeasternmost county went along the South end of the Appalachians and was a significantly easier ride!
We started the morning by driving to the trailhead for Rabun Mountain, which starts at the back of a hilltop neighborhood, in a hilltop town, right on the NC-GA border. There wasn’t any information at the trailhead, which made us a tiny bit nervous since we didn’t do a ton of research beforehand, but Curtis was certain that this hike was shorter than Blood Mountain was yesterday, so we packed up some snacks and started the hike. Not long after, we found a sign that said it was 1.6 miles to the peak, which put our minds at ease — that was totally doable for this morning.
The trail up Rabun Mountain was wide and well maintained, steadily gaining in elevation the whole way up. We think it’s part of the Bertram Trail, yet another of the numerous long distance trails that exist in this part of the country. Charlotte set a brisk pace for us and we hardly stopped during our hike to the top. By the second half, she and Curtis got farther ahead from me and I spent that whole time trying to catch up. After a few long switchbacks, the trail ended with a long slow incline to the top that felt like it would never end. But it was all worth it!
There’s a tower at the top with great unobstructed views all around, and just like yesterday, the skies today were clear and we could see far into the distance. It wasn’t until we reached the top that we found out that this is the second highest peak in Georgia, and it kind of felt like a redemption for the lack of hike and views we had on Brasstown Bald. The views were predominantly oriented to the East, and we think we were able to see the high-peaks of South Carolina. We ate and shared peanut butter sandwiches with another hiker (who was either impressed or incredulous that Curtis had carried up a whole jar of peanut butter and half a loaf of bread) and admired the view before beginning our descent.
Again, Charlotte set a brisk pace on the way back to the car, and we zoomed past the numerous people hiking up. It definitely paid to be early to the trailhead as there is a very limited number of spaces and when we got back, there was lots of semi-legal street parking going on.
At this point, it wasn’t even noon and we still had the entire afternoon to spend in Northeastern Georgia with perfect weather, but we hadn’t done much research besides starring random waterfalls on Google Maps (and there are a lot of them). I didn’t feel like doing anything more strenuous than what we had just done, so we just picked a few that were on our way back that didn’t look too difficult.
Our first waterfall was on the North side of Lake Rabun in the National Forest – this required us to take a rather windy road past a significant number of lake houses, but we managed. We found parking right off the side of the road and set off for Angel Falls.
The trail took us into a National Forest campground where conceivably we could have parked closer to the falls themselves before following the stream upwards into the ravine. After about a half mile or so we came upon a tall waterfall where we stopped for pictures. We noticed that the trail continued on, but we wanted to get back to an area with reception for the remainder of the day. It wasn’t until we got back to the campground and stopped to read an informational sign that we realized that the waterfall we had stopped to see was not actually Angel Falls, but the slightly smaller Panther Falls. Oh well, it was still a great hike.
We decided to wrap up our time in Northeastern Georgia by visiting Tallulah Gorge State Park. When we lived in South Carolina we had planned on coming up here, but just never found the time. They say that the Gorge is one of the ‘Seven Wonders of Georgia’, so we accepted that it was going to be busy, being a beautiful Saturday afternoon and all, and just decided to embrace it since we were already in the area. All we wanted was to enjoy the loop trail which was mostly paved, besides the stairs going down on either side of the gorge.
When we arrived at the start of the trail, there was a group of loud teenage boys also starting, so we deliberately chose to walk counter-clockwise, the opposite direction they were going — only to have a second group of loud teenagers show up shortly after making our decision. Oh well, Charlotte was pokey enough at this point in the day that we were able to put some distance between us and them. We walked the loop leisurely, playing PokemonGo and admiring the different viewpoints of waterfalls far below in the gorge as we went along. Despite being busier, it was still a relaxing walk since we didn’t have to watch our footing for large rocks or roots in the way.
The only part about the trail that concerned us was that we knew the stairs down into the gorge were metal grated ones, which are sometimes difficult for Charlotte to manage. However, when we reached the top of the stairs on the far side, we spotted a sign that said dogs weren’t allowed on this part of the trail for that very reason. It looked like our decisions were made for us, and we kept walking the paved trail to another viewpoint further along, then turned back and retraced our steps back to the beginning. Overall we enjoyed our short time here, though I’m sure it would look even prettier in other seasons when the trees aren’t bare.
Finally, we drove back to our campsite in DeSoto Falls Recreation Area. We knew it was supposed to start raining overnight and that the rain would continue throughout the morning, so we decided to pack up the tent and sleep in the car instead, mostly so that we wouldn’t have to pack up in the rain.
The girls in the campsite next to us were still camping here, but their loud fireside chat from last night would be considered mellow compared to our new neighbors on the other side. They had 4 cars and tents packed in to their one-or-two car campsite, and they yelled and blasted their music for all in the campground to hear. Thanks to being in the car, the sounds were at least muffled to us, but we finally broke down in the end and Curtis had to go out and have that uncomfortable confrontation that we’re always trying to avoid. In his words, when he came over they all cowered on the other side of their campfire with scared looks (as they should) and did turn off their music when he asked. We didn’t expect to have to deal with campers like these in January, but we realized we were just North of a college town so maybe that’s where we went wrong. Oh well, at least after this night we would be able to catch up on sleep in a cozy little cottage!
