Exploring The Peach State – Mountains and Gorges of Georgia
Although the nickname of the state, I did not, in fact, have any peaches while in Georgia. I should have planned this out better. I feel I’ve missed an opportunity here. After I was done in South Carolina, I was ready to continue on the route to Georgia. I stayed at a campground called Grapevine that is still in South Carolina, but close to the border. The campground here was right along a creek and had bathrooms as well as trash disposal. There was absolutely no service at this location though, and I tested both for AT&T and Verizon. I spent one night and then had to move so that I could work for the week. I went maybe 10 minutes back down the access road toward the exit and found a couple bars, so I just found a pull-off and parked there for the next couple of days. I’d still recommend the campground, but I’d advise that if service is a necessity, than don’t follow the road all the way to the end.
The park I went to on Saturday was Tallulah Gorge State Park. This location is well-known for the white water rapids that flow through its canyon as well as the suspension bridge that swings 80ft above the gorge floor. The hike across the suspension bridge is the 2-mile Hurricane Falls loop with over 1,000 steps. Along this trail are different lookouts for you to see each of the falls at this park: Tempesta, Hurricane, Bridal Veil and Oceana Falls.
There is a Gorge Floor trail that is accessed at the base of the stairs once you descend from the suspension bridge, but permits are required to hike this one. They are free, and can be obtained at the Interpretive Center but only 100 are given out each day so they run out quick. They were not issuing permits when I was there due to COVID restrictions, so I missed out on this trail.
Oh and yeah, it rained all day here as well, which made for great videos, but very wet clothes.
On Sunday, I drove 30 mins further north to Black Rock Mountain State Park. This park is incredibly beautiful. I did 3 different trails here. The first one was the James Edmonds. This was 7.2 miles long with an elevation gain of over 2,000ft. AllTrails rates it as hard and I would agree. I increased the length of it by adding on the Black Rock Lake trail which was a smaller loop that can be accessed in the middle of the Edmonds trail.
James Edmond Overlook 
Black Rock Lake 
Tennessee Rock Overlook
After work on Monday, I came back for a shorter 2.2 mile sunset hike. The Tennessee Rock trail led to an amazing view at the summit where you could see across the border into Tennessee and the Great Smokies. On my walk back, the sunset looked amazing through the trees and I wished I had stayed at the summit to watch the whole thing. Since I didn’t have time to hike back, I did the next best thing. I climbed a tree obviously. This was the resulting view. I’m pretty sure sunsets are my favorite. The way everything goes dark, the sky changes colors every few minutes and shadows are cast all over. And the best part, you don’t have to drag yourself out of bed at an ungodly hour to watch it.
This was the extent of my Georgia excursions, and it was perfect. I’ve been trying to keep it to a week per state depending on how much there is to do, because I could technically be called back into work at any time. Next up: Alabama.
