I made a July trip over to Cloudland Canyon State Park to see the waterfalls with an expectation that I’d also see many wildflowers along the way, and I wasn’t disappointed.  While recently posting a report on a visit to nearby Lula Falls, I discovered that I’d never written the planned report on the Cloudland Canyon trip.  I quickly realized that I didn’t remember many of the details of the walk – and I was relieved to discover that the July trip was in 2011, not just this past July, so the memory fade was more reasonable.  But to refresh that failing memory, I made another trip up there on Dec 5.  Here are a dozen photos from those two “waterfalls and wildflowers walks.”

(Click on any image and you’ll go to Flickr where you can view larger sized images.)

 

 

Cloudland Canyon State Park is a gem of a state park located in Dade County in the far corner of northwest Georgia on Lookout Mountain.  The key geographic feature is the deep gorge carved out by Daniel Creek and Bear Creek, which join to form Sitton Creek.  The gorge is known as Sitton’s Gulch.  As expected in a deep gorge, there are many cascades and waterfalls on the creeks, two of which are quite tall and impressive – Cherokee Falls (formerly known as the upper falls) and Hemlock Falls (formerly known as the lower falls.)  Cherokee Falls is 60 feet high; Hemlock Falls is notably taller at 90 feet.

The Waterfalls Trail visits both of these falls.

The “trail” is more stairs and boardwalks than trail.  Because of this the trail isn’t difficult to walk, but it is quite steep, and thus is rated “strenuous.”  The trail is listed as being 2 miles long, but I’m not sure that it’s that long.  I suspect it has been rerouted since the 2-mile measurement.  In December, it took me 45 minutes to walk down to both waterfalls and photograph them.  While I didn’t dally, I also didn’t push myself to rush away.  I also didn’t make any “botany stops” on the way down – a lot easier to do in December than in July.  It took me 30 minutes to walk out from the bridge at Sitton’s Gulch Trail.

There are some nice, unnamed cascades near the bridge on Sitton’s Gulch Trail which are worth visiting if you have the time.   The photo to the left is of a cascades just upstream from the bridge.  If you turn around and look downstream, you’ll see you’re above a small waterfalls of maybe 10′ or 12′.  It drops into the pool you can see, and then drops on down in another couple of cascades shown in the photo at the beginning of this article.  The drop in the bottom left of the below photo is the same falls that can be seen at the top of the introduction photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That 30 minute December hike out did include a couple of botany breaks, or maybe they were catch-my-breath breaks disguised as botany breaks.  I was surprised by the blooming American Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) – I didn’t know American Witchhazel bloomed in late fall or early winter.  I also got to see (and photograph) the seedpods of Mountain Bush Honeysuckle, which I had seen blooming on the July trip up here.  That  discovery on the July trip was a highlight for me – a “lifer.”  I had never seen this rare plant before, which is a Threatened species in Tennessee, and is found only in Dade County in Georgia (Dade is the county containing most of Cloudland Canyon State Park.)

I spent a lot more time stopping to view and

photograph the plants on the July visit, naturally, since more were blooming or otherwise recognizable.  The winter garb of most plants is more like a winter disguise to me.  Among the plants I saw and recognized were Spiderworts along the nearby section of the Sitton’s Gulch Trail, Fairybells with the berries not yet ripened, and Indian Cucumber Root, also past blooming.  There were Hyndrangea in bloom, and a Ticktrefoil with its tiny pink blossoms at the top of the trail, and Jack-in-the-Pulpit green fruit emerging from the spathe.

 

 

Make no mistake, that climb back up the Waterfalls Trail is steep and strenuous.  Fortunately the park has placed benches on strategic landings along the way.  Most of these are in the understory during the summer months, but after the leaves have fallen, the views of the gorge are really nice, although the great views of Sitton’s Gulch are back at the beginning of the trail.  Take it easy, take your time, and enjoy the walk.