Lake Rabun, Georgia

April 21, 2024

We had a picture-perfect day for our journey to the Appalachian foothills of northern Georgia. It would have been nice to spend another day or two on Clarks Hill Lake/Strom Thurmond Lake, but when you reserve campsites ahead of time like we do, you usually have to keep to the schedule.

One last sunrise shot over Clarks Hill Lake

We don't always get sunlight streaming in like this in the morning

We drove through several small towns along the way. Elberton, population 4789, claims to be the "Granite Capital of the World".

First glimpses of the Appalachian Foothills

Our campsite was quite a challenge for us to get into. There had not been a lot of information online about the campground or the individual campsites, aside from some complaints that it could be awkward for big rigs. The complaints were pretty spot-on, even though our trailer isn't really considered a "big rig". The camp roads were twisty and very narrow. Our site happened to be oriented backwards to the flow of traffic, so it was near impossible to back into it, but we did try. Fortunately, a camp host arrived in a golf cart and offered to block traffic so that we could exit the loop, do a 3-point turn around (no easy feat) and come back the wrong way and get into our campsite. Not that we really needed the host to block traffic--we were pretty much the only ones at the campground when we arrived. Rick was a champ maneuvering the trailer to keep it from falling off into one of the many ditches. Julie helpfully offered that this was probably the worst campground (maneuvering-wise) of the season, and that all the others will be better. Rick spent much of our stay scheming on the best way to leave the campsite come Monday.

The campsite was plenty large enough for us, once we got into it

Since the day we arrived promised to be the nicest weather day, we decided to go out that afternoon and do a local hike to Minnehaha Falls. 

Afterwards, we decided to drive around a bit. Lake Rabun is a twisty 835-acre reservoir with lots of cabins, boat houses, and some large lake houses bordering its shores. It's a really pretty area.

It was rainy when we woke up on Friday morning, so we decided to head into town and do some laundry. The rain had just cleared when we set out, and the lake looked very pretty.

Spotted some wisteria blooming at the side of the road

Many of the houses were quite close to the road

Super steep driveway!

Could that be Gustav 😉? 

Historic Lakemont

The afternoon turned out to be mostly sunny and pleasant, so we took a hike off the campground to Panther Falls and Angel Falls (3.6 miles).

Trillium selfie

Rhododendron tunnel

Another trillium

Approaching Panther Falls

Must. Get. Photosphere.

Angel Falls

On Saturday, we went to Tallulah Gorge State Park (because we had not yet seen enough waterfalls). Bonus--extra water was released this weekend from the upstream dam for "aesthetic purposes".  The trail we took was only 3.3 miles, but the 500 vertical feet of stairs to the bottom gave us a good workout.

One of the many waterfalls in the gorge. We didn't end up taking pictures of all the waterfalls, mainly because they all kind of looked the same after a while.

Lots of stairs to get to the bottom of the gorge

The swinging bridge over the gorge

Trumpet Vine in its natural habitat (It can be quite the invincible thug in the home garden)

More stairs

Made it to the bottom It was definitely harder going back up!

Back at the top

Lots of old stonework from the late 19th century

These wild roses smelled very nice

Another view of the swinging bridge

Mountain Laurel in full bloom

This picture was taken at the highest point in the park--Inspiration Point. The scene is not super interesting, probably because a lot is hidden by trees.

Karl Wallenda tight-roped across the gorge in 1970. This was one of the towers that supported the wire.

After so much beautiful weather, Sunday was a cold and rainy day. St. Paul, Minnesota had nicer weather that day.

Cold and rainy, but still pretty

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