Tallulah Gorge

Tallulah Gorge is a thousand-foot deep (more or less) canyon carved by its namesake river, and it's some of the wildest-looking country in north Georgia. In reality, it's not as wild as it once was: in 1910, the Georgia Railway and Power Company (now just Georgia Power) started building a series of hydroelectric dams on the Tallulah River, and the one just above Tallulah Falls (not a single waterfall but a series) was completed in 1913. Since then, the river's flow has been much reduced, though under an agreement between Georgia Power and Georgia State Parks volume is periodically increased from time to time for whitewater rafting and kayaking.

Jessa and I stopped here with limited time to spend, and with her experiencing double vision and balance issues, so I present here a brief tour of the most accessible section of the gorge's north rim:

L'eau D'or Falls, the first major falls below the dam.

At the right-hand side of this photo is the foot of L'eau D'or Falls; at the right, the top of Tempesta Falls. In between is Hawthorne Pool. 

The top of Tempesta Falls again—the only view of this waterfall to be had from the north rim trail.

A different angle on L'eau D'or Falls.

Tallulah River below Tempesta Falls.

Suspension bridge over Hurricane Falls.

Hurricane Falls is best appreciated at close range...

...but easier to see from the rim. 

The rusting steel frame and concrete pads below are what remains of the tower erected for Karl Wallenda's highwire crossing of Tallulah Gorge in 1970. As daring (possibly insane) as that feat was, it was not a first—a J.A. St. John, using a pseudonym (either Professor Bachman or Professor Leon, depending on the source), walked a tightrope over the same part of the gorge nearly a century earlier (either 1883 or 1886, again depending on who you ask).

It's a long way down...

Oceana Falls.

A view down the Gorge...

...and downstream toward Bridal Veil Falls.

Again, it's a long way down. 

Peregrines have nested here for a few years now, but we didn't see them in our brief visit. I saw a slightly out-of-focus ruby-crowned kinglet—it's not just the photo; the bird itself was blurry, I swear—and Jessa, who couldn't get her eyes to focus, nevertheless got crisp shots of a white-breasted nuthatch. (Even the red "trousers" are visible in one picture.)