I took my eldest 2 girls for a weekend trip to Amicalola Falls for a day of hiking. The Falls are 6 hours north of where we live, so we drove 2/3 of the way up on a Friday after work and arrived at the Falls at 9 am on a Saturday (July 25th.)
We parked at the top of the falls and walked down. I think the step count was 625 steps, winding their way down. You can also drive to the bottom and top. If you just want to go to the best viewing spot, park at the bottom and walk up about 100 steps to the viewing platform.
The falls themselves are 729 foot high. For more information, visit the Park website.
It took us about an hour to get down the falls, take some pictures and enjoy the view, sit at the reflection pond for a bit and walk back up to the top. Going back up was harder than anticipated, I had to stop a couple times to rest. Also, 3 days later, my calves are still sore!
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After the waterfall, there is a couple more big hikes that you can take, and a lot of smaller trails in the Park. You can take the nearly 8 mile feeder trail that takes you to Springer Mountain, the start of the Appalachian Trail.
We elected to take the 4.7 mile trek to the Len Foote Hike Inn. I wanted to check it out, for a Fall trip with my wife. We never made it. We made it to a little past the 2.5mi marker and thunder started. We turned back, but got caught in a bad storm the last 30 minutes of our leg.
The walk is not the best in the rain. The trail has a lot of GA clay, mixed with flint and other rocks. It can be slippery and very muddy. Still, the hike was great! We didn’t see anyone the first 45 minutes of out walk. The picture below is a vista from the trail, where we ran into the first person.
We made it back around 12:30 and went to lunch at the Lodge. Reservations were required for the window seats with the view, but the interior seats were available. The cost was $15.99 per person for a buffet. The buffet consisted of 2 meats, 2 vegetables, 1 soup, roll, salad and cookies. Truthfully, the food was very bland.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t check in to the lodge until 4pm and were nasty from the hike in the rain. But, who cares. We headed to Dahlonega, about 40 minutes away. Dahlonega is a quant little town with a lot of shops and restaurants. We spent a couple hours there and headed back.
We checked into the lodge, I had made my reservations weeks prior. The cost was $263.35 per night for a room with a great view on the Fourth floor. When we got to our room, the A/C was not working though. It took 3 hours to get replaced, so we had to wait outside in a seating area, which was a little disappointing. I played the board game Sorry with the girls, my eldest winning both times:(
By the time we got into our rooms and showered it was nearly 9pm. The girls went straight to bed, and I was out within 3o minutes.
I will definitely head back, but not stay in the lodge. I want to stay at the Camp Inn or possibly Dahlonega.
