October 19, 2009
Death stairs.
Autumn is upon us
I had a short day trip to Amicalola Falls this Saturday. I was under the impression by the flowery prose on the GA State Park Leaf Watch page, that it would be gray skies but with lots of color. There was a bit of color, but nothing to get excited about. It looked as though the leaves that had turned had already fallen off, leaving mostly bare branches and green leaves.
Moss and naked trees
A bit of yellow
Weird seedpod thing outside the lobby
Weird seedpod, burst
It was also in the high 40s/low 50s outside, which makes me an unhappy girl. After the short walk around the “Lodge Loop”, I wanted to thaw out a bit and visited the lodge.
Crazy chandelier in the lodge
There was a birds of prey show going on in the lobby, which was keeping me from getting close to the amazing wall of glass. The show seemed to consist mostly of various types of owls, and I firmly believe that owls are assholes, so I wasn’t very interested. Eventually, the kids cleared out of the lobby and I could look out the massive window.
View from the gift shop
View from the lobby
After the lobby, it was off to see the falls. The falls were definitely an afterthought, as I was there mostly for pretty trees. I had no idea what the falls were going to entail, other than a 604 step staircase, which I learned from a shirt in the visitors’ center.
From the top, the falls are a bit anti-climactic.
The top of the falls
View from the top, with the edge of the falls
helpful sign
The view was pretty incredible
To get to the “viewing platform” of the waterfall, you start down the longer portion of the devil stairs.
The sign isn’t lying, either. It’s pretty difficult just going down these stairs, by the time I’d reached the bottom, my legs were twitching.
This isn't even all of the stairs. They go on and on and on
I wasn't going fast enough, apparently.
Right before the viewing platform, there’s this stump covered in old gum.
the gum stump
The viewing platform was pretty impressive. I had no idea the falls would look anything like this judging from the top.
from the viewing platform
There are around 100ish more stairs from the platform to the “bottom” (which didn’t look like the bottom to me once we got there, it just wasn’t as intense).
leaves on the way to the bottom
from the bottom, you can't see the top and can only barely see the viewing platform.
It was a really pleasant day trip. I would like to stay a weekend at some point. It was SO quiet and peaceful.
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