Helton Creek Falls
Apr. 20th, 2025 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerGeorgia Travelog #22
Helton Creek - Saturday, 12 Apr 2025, 6pm
Wow, what a packed day. We've done five hikes today in the Appalachian Mountains of northern Georgia. I knew it was an aggressive plan to begin with. Then, when hiking Anna Ruby Falls, getting lunch in tourist-trappy Helen, anddriving to finding the trail for Horse Trough Falls all took a bit longer than expected, I fretted that one of these last two hikes would fall off the schedule. Nope! We made quick work of Trahlyta Falls, leaving just enough time to get over here (not that far away) to Helton Creek Falls.
The drive out to the trailhead seemed a bit strange. We turned off from four lane highway US-19 as it was climbing toward a mountain pass onto a narrow road that wound around through a deep-woods retirement/vacation home community. After a mile or so the road turned to packed dirt and gravel as it crossed onto National Forest land. There was little indication this was the route to a hiking trail except for one sign halfway down the road, then a small sign at a wide spot in the road big enough for 5-6 cars to park. From there a trail dropped to Helton Creek.
The trail description on AllTrails says it's a climb of 19'. That's wrong by 4-5x as it's more like 80-100' of climbing; half on the way in and half on the way out, as the trail both goes down to the bottom of the creek then ascends to two sets of falls. We didn't mind the extra climbing because the sights were worth it. Being right down at the water's edge below the lower falls (photo above) was nice.
Also nice was the view of the upper falls from a wooden observation deck. This remote and not well signed falls has received some love recently from the Forest Service. The trail is spiffed up with wooden beams forming the steep and otherwise slippery parts of the trail into steps, and there's a wooden deck here that widens what would otherwise be a muddy viewpoint big enough for 2-3 people into tidy space for 6-8.
Now we're back at the car and ready to head home. ...Well, not home, but Atlanta. We'll stay in a hotel near the airport tonight before flying home-home tomorrow. I'm concerned it'll be upwards of 3 hours of driving tonight, plus however long we stop for dinner. I won't know the driving distance or ETA until we get back up out of this canyon into an area with cell signal. Update: The drive to Atlanta was just 2 hours plus a stop for dinner. Nice!
Helton Creek - Saturday, 12 Apr 2025, 6pm
Wow, what a packed day. We've done five hikes today in the Appalachian Mountains of northern Georgia. I knew it was an aggressive plan to begin with. Then, when hiking Anna Ruby Falls, getting lunch in tourist-trappy Helen, and
The drive out to the trailhead seemed a bit strange. We turned off from four lane highway US-19 as it was climbing toward a mountain pass onto a narrow road that wound around through a deep-woods retirement/vacation home community. After a mile or so the road turned to packed dirt and gravel as it crossed onto National Forest land. There was little indication this was the route to a hiking trail except for one sign halfway down the road, then a small sign at a wide spot in the road big enough for 5-6 cars to park. From there a trail dropped to Helton Creek.
The trail description on AllTrails says it's a climb of 19'. That's wrong by 4-5x as it's more like 80-100' of climbing; half on the way in and half on the way out, as the trail both goes down to the bottom of the creek then ascends to two sets of falls. We didn't mind the extra climbing because the sights were worth it. Being right down at the water's edge below the lower falls (photo above) was nice.
Also nice was the view of the upper falls from a wooden observation deck. This remote and not well signed falls has received some love recently from the Forest Service. The trail is spiffed up with wooden beams forming the steep and otherwise slippery parts of the trail into steps, and there's a wooden deck here that widens what would otherwise be a muddy viewpoint big enough for 2-3 people into tidy space for 6-8.
Now we're back at the car and ready to head home. ...Well, not home, but Atlanta. We'll stay in a hotel near the airport tonight before flying home-home tomorrow. I'm concerned it'll be upwards of 3 hours of driving tonight, plus however long we stop for dinner. I won't know the driving distance or ETA until we get back up out of this canyon into an area with cell signal. Update: The drive to Atlanta was just 2 hours plus a stop for dinner. Nice!
Yay!
Date: 2025-04-20 05:59 pm (UTC)