High Shoals Falls and Blue Hole Falls GA The Short Tale! that wasn't..

3 years ago
142

High Shoals Creek and the thereon was supposed to be a Out There! Short Tale! but the place is so beautiful and such a good time I couldn't bring myself to cut much of the footage. The fun begins the moment you leave the main road 17/75. Just a few hundred yards on FS 283 all vehicles must ford a small river known as the Hiawassee.. This term has a different definition than it does in NC apparently.. Viewers from there will get the small versus large meaning of that one. A winding dirt forest road takes you about 1.4 miles into the High Shoals Scenic Area. A 170-acre area in the Brasstown Ranger District which features two waterfalls on an inaccessible stream High Shoals Creek. Once reaching the very small parking lot the 1.2-mile hike is all downhill! Which of course is good for getting TO the falls. After reaching a large campsite at the bottom of the hill you will need to cross the creek itself. There once was a bridge that you will see remnants of in the video but as of this publication is destroyed and makeshifted to cross the creek carefully without getting your boots soaked before you get to the good stuff anyway... An old roadbed leads the short way to the One mile mark and the first fall Blue Hole. There is a sheer 15 ft drop into a deep plunge pool here. Rhododendron and laurel perfectly frame this drop and pool for a relaxing chill spot or swimming. This channel does NOT recommend climbing the rocks of falls. That and the rope hanging in the trees is AT YOUR OWN RISK. There have been deaths that have occurred here and many other falls from misadventurers so please take caution.
Continuing down the trail for the last half mile or so leads through switchbacks and downhill again to the observation deck at High Shoals Falls. The two falls couldn't be any more different. As Blue Hole Falls is symmetrical typical cascade into a picturesque pool. High Shoals is a confusing tumble of broken channels and streams pouring over the rough edges of the rocky fall. Water here sprays in all kinds of directions. More than beautiful and you will have to get Out There! yourself to behold it. The several hundred feet in elevation change on the way out is where the path goes from easy to moderate real quick and in a hurry. If your shoes are wet on the way out you may surely regret the climb itself. But we here at Out There! assure you it is well worth the small amount of pain of a blister for a short time for a memory that will last forever.

Remember the rocks on the falls are hard and unforgiving. They don't give freebies or second chances. And in this terrain it will be very difficult to get a human to treatment. We here at Out There! will keep our opinions to ourselves about climbing waterfalls. But we can not recommend it. We do however recommend you getting out there. Learning your abilities and enjoying the nature your Creator has provided for you.

We will see yall.....--

-Out There!

All music is provided by the Camtasia Music Asset Library under Royalty-Free License that can be found here:
https://www.storyblocks.com/license

Loading comments...