Amicalola Falls has been pretty high on my list of Georgia trails for about a year. So when John asked me if I could take time off to hike it with him, I cancelled work for the day to take the trip.

I was not disappointed.

Teasing Waterfall

Once we had our map, El Capitan and I headed off into the woods. This early on in the trail, we mostly saw small streams just trickling by. We tried to take a few pictures, but the lighting was not on our side.

Reflection Pools

We then made a quick stop at the Reflection Pools; a brief respite before we tackled the uphill trail that awaited us. There wasn’t much to see besides the still water, and two men fishing, so we were soon on our way again.

The Climb to the Steps

It was all uphill after that. I hadn’t hiked a trail that steep since hiking up Lone Mountain in Vegas, last spring. Thankfully, the river to our left gave us plenty of ~~opportunities~~ excuses to stop and take pictures.

The higher we climbed, the brighter the sun seemed to get.

Step It Up

Eventually, we reached the ten-million steps it would take to get to the top of the waterfall. This was the first 175 steps, but there are 604 steps in total. Not surprisingly, at 729 feet, Amicalola Falls is the tallest cascading waterfall in the South.

But if I said it wasn’t worth it, I would be lying. I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls in my time – even climbed up a few, and fell down one – but I have never seen anything as majestic as Amicalola Falls.

It was almost impossible to fit the entire thing into one frame. I probably should have tried a vertical panoramic shot, but I didn’t think of that at the time.

Sadly Mistaken

Thinking we were already at the top and didn’t have much further to go, John and I stopped for a selfie.

Boy, were we wrong! We had even more climbing to do, to get to the bridge over the waterfall. The view wasn’t as phenomenal as down below; but worth seeing, nonetheless.

All Downhill

The rest of our hike was downhill after that – only literally, this time. It was rugged and rocky, with a few brief respites of actual dirt. I probably should have taken a picture or two, but let’s be honest: after a view like this, nothing else really matters.