Amicalola Falls State Park, Dawsonville, Georgia

“There’s no better place to find yourself that sitting by a waterfall and listening to it’s music.”

Roland R. Kemler

Joe and I had spent a lovely morning in Dawsonville, Georgia going to both Faucett’s Sunflower Farm and then to Burt’s Pumpkin Farm. Both are fantastic places to visit and they lead us right to this park. We hadn’t realized just how close this park was to those places and when we found out, we just had to go.

What a beautiful day. This brought back many memories for us since ten years ago, we took our son Jason here to start hiking the Appalachian Trail. This is an access area for the Appalachian Trail to get to Springer Mountain the true start of the trail. That was a very hard day for me, a mother, taking her son to the middle of the woods and letting him leave by himself. That day, we went into the visitors center and Jason put his name on the roster for hiking the trail. We walked up the service road to about half way to the top of the mountain and said goodbye. It was a foggy, rainy day and when we hugged goodbye the tears came for me. He went one way and we went another.  That imagine is burnt into my brain seeing him walk away - alone. I cried all the way down the mountain as I felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness – not for us but for our son. As we walked down the steps, I tried to see the falls through the fog, rain, and my tears.

Today was totally different as the sun is shining and it was beautifully clear day. All is right with the world. I didn’t have to worry about my son, who after me being so upset ten years ago when I felt he was so alone, met his wife on the trail the day after he got on the trail. Today was a celebration for us since he found the love of his life and we can see how beautiful these falls truly are.

This park has 829 acres that was originally Cherokee land and Amicalola meant “Tumbling Waters” in their language. The Cherokee were here until 1838 when they were removed from the area during the “Cherokee Trail of Tears.” After that Barley Crane bought the land and put a grist mill near where the visitors center is now located. During the Civil War, the area remained in near anarchy until the Union troops came in 1865. John Crane, Barley’s son continued to run the mill until the government confiscated his land since he didn’t pay his taxes on the whiskey he made and sold. The state park system took over this park in 1940.

These falls are gorgeous and are the highest cascading falls in Georgia at 729 feet high. There are plenty of paths to get to the top of the falls. The trail we took was a short trail but straight up and was a hard trail to tackle for us at least. There are just over 600 steps to get to the top. Today we did not go to the top but found great views of the falls.

We met some lovely young ladies at the platform overlook and we took their picture and they took ours. Then we walked down with them and had good conversations all the way to the parking lot. They were here for a friends wedding. This was a lovely walk and we enjoyed their company. We did notice a big difference in being able to walk up to the falls from ten years prior. Imagine that.

This is a wonderful state park and has a beautiful forest to gaze upon. We love our waterfalls and go to see a waterfall every time we are in the mountains. This one is at the top of our list of falls to see in the North Georgia mountains. It surely is a must see. The visitors center is open every day except on some holidays. Bye for now.