Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge

Amicalola Falls
Location of Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge in Georgia
Location	Dawson County, Georgia, USA
Nearest city	Dawsonville, Georgia
Coordinates	34°33′58″N 84°14′31″W / 34.566°N 84.242°W / 34.566; -84.242Coordinates: 34°33′58″N 84°14′31″W / 34.566°N 84.242°W / 34.566; -84.242
Area	829 acres (3.35 km²; 1.30 sq mi)
Governing body	Georgia State Park
Website	Official website

Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge is an 829-acre (3.35 km²) Georgia state park located between Ellijay and Dahlonega in Dawsonville, Georgia. The park's name is derived from a Cherokee language word meaning "tumbling waters".^[1] The park is home to Amicalola Falls, a 729-foot (222 m) waterfall, making it the highest in Georgia.^[2] It is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. An eight-mile (13 km) trail that winds past Amicalola Falls and leads to Springer Mountain, famous for being the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, begins in the park. Amicalola Falls State Park also offers many hiking trails, a guest lodge, restaurant, cabins, a shelter for long distance Appalachian Trail hikers, a campground and access to the eco-friendly Len Foote Hike Inn.

History

View from the Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge

Little is known about the falls before the 19th century. The Cherokee tribe controlled the area of the state park until 1832, when the Treaty of New Echota forced the Cherokee to leave and go further west into the Ozarks. This mass removal would later be known as the Trail of Tears. The first written account of the falls was penned by a local citizen by the name of William Williamson, who was exploring the area looking for land that he would take during the Sixth Georgia Land Lottery. Williamson wrote:

“

In the course of my route in the Mountains I discovered a Water Fall perhaps the greatest in the World the most majestic Scene that I have ever witnessed or heard of the Creek passes over the mountain & the fall I think can't be less than Six hundred Yards. The Mountain is at least three fourths of a mile high. I made great exertions to get on the summit but the ascent was so great that I was completely exhausted by the time I reached half way. My position was such that I had a perfect view of the entire Fall The Steam is Called Um-ma-eolola from the Fall (Tumbling Waters) ^[3]

”

After the lottery had taken place, an unknown settler was given the land, but chose not to live on it because the terrain proved to be too rugged. Nearby settlers knew a Cherokee woman who lived in the area until the 1850s, who refused to leave along with her tribe.^[4]

The state purchased the falls in 1911. Amicalola Falls State Park was not developed at all until the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club decided that the nearby Springer Mountain would be where they would move the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail from Mount Oglethorpe in 1958. An 8.5-mile-long (13.7 km) trail was blazed from the base of Amicalola Falls to the top of Springer Mountain so that Appalachian Trail hikers would be able to access the trail from a major highway.

Today

View from the top of the falls

Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge has four groups of trails within it, including the trail leading up to the top of the waterfall. The park has a full-time staff of park rangers, and has a lodge that serves as a starting point of Appalachian Trail hikers. The park also owns a nearby facility called the Len Foote Hike Inn, a backcountry eco-friendly inn that is one mile (1.6 km) from the Appalachian Approach trail and 4.4 miles (7.1 km) from Springer Mountain. The inn is operated by a non-profit organization known as the Appalachian Educational Recreational Services, Inc. or AERS.^[4]

In January 2017 Amicalola Falls State Park was named the best state park in Georgia for photography.^[5]

AMICALOLA FALLS (Top) - Dawson County - near Dawsonville, Georgia - USA. *(view of valley - looking out from top of the falls - September 2013)
AMICALOLA FALLS (Main Cascade) - view looking up from hiking trail foot bridge. (Sept. 2013)
-TCR III
AMICALOLA FALLS (Lower Cascade) - view looking under hiking trail foot bridge. (Sept. 2013)
-TCR III
Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge (lower back patio).
-TCR III
Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge (view over valley).
-TCR III
View looking downward showing the stairs of the trail alongside of the waterfall
Spectacular views can be seen for those able to make a strenuous climb up a series of stairs to an observation overlook
An observation bridge spans across the waterfall

Notes

↑ "The Names Stayed". Calhoun Times and Gordon County News. August 29, 1990. p. 64. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
↑ Boyd (2001), p. 82
↑ Amicalola Falls State Park, retrieved 2007-03-20
1 2 Amicalola Falls, Gateway to the Appalachian Trail, retrieved on 2007-03-20
↑ "The Best State Parks in Each State". LoadedLandscapes.com.

References

Boyd, Brian (2001). Waterfalls of the Southern Appalachians & Great Smoky Mountains. Clayton, GA: Fern Creek Press. ISBN 978-1-893651-08-1.

External links

Protected areas of Georgia

Federal

National historic sites and military parks	Andersonville NHS Jimmy Carter NHS Martin Luther King Jr. NHS Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park
National monuments	Fort Frederica Fort Pulaski Ocmulgee
National forests	Chattahoochee Oconee
National wildlife refuges	Banks Lake Blackbeard Island Bond Swamp Eufaula Harris Neck Okefenokee Piedmont Savannah Wassaw Wolf Island
Wilderness areas	Big Frog Wilderness Blood Mountain Wilderness Brasstown Wilderness Cohutta Wilderness Cumberland Island National Seashore Ellicott Rock Wilderness Mark Trail Wilderness Okefenokee Wilderness Raven Cliffs Wilderness Rich Mountain Wilderness Southern Nantahala Wilderness Tray Mountain Wilderness
Wild and scenic rivers	Chattooga River
National trails	Appalachian Trail Pinhoti National Recreation Trail
Other protected areas	Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area Cumberland Island National Seashore Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve

State

Parks	Amicalola Falls Black Rock Mountain Bobby Brown Buck Shoals Chattahoochee Bend Cloudland Canyon Crooked River Don Carter Elijah Clark F.D. Roosevelt Florence Marina Fort Mountain Fort Yargo General Coffee George L. Smith George T. Bagby Georgia Veterans Gordonia-Alatamaha Hamburg Hard Labor Creek Hart High Falls Indian Springs James H. "Sloppy" Floyd John Tanner Laura S. Walker Little Ocmulgee Magnolia Springs Mistletoe Moccasin Creek Panola Mountain Providence Canyon Red Top Mountain Reed Bingham Richard B. Russell Sapelo Island Seminole Skidaway Island Smithgall Woods Sprewell Bluff Standing Boy Creek Stephen C. Foster Sweetwater Creek Tallulah Gorge Tugaloo Unicoi Victoria Bryant Vogel Watson Mill Bridge
Historic parks and sites	A.H. Stephens Chief Vann House Dahlonega Gold Museum Etowah Indian Mounds Fort McAllister Fort King George Fort Morris Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation Jarrell Plantation Jefferson Davis Memorial Kolomoki Mounds Lapham-Patterson House Little White House New Echota Pickett's Mill Battlefield Robert Toombs House Travelers Rest Wormsloe
Forests	Baldwin Bartram Brender-Hitchiti Dixon Memorial Dawson Hightower Paulding Spirit Creek
Other	Centennial Olympic Park Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center Jekyll Island Len Foote Hike Inn Radium Springs Sapelo Island Stone Mountain Park

County,
municipal
and other

Parks	Chehaw Park Cobb County Parks McIntosh Reserve Murphey Candler Park Okefenokee Swamp Park Robert G. Hunter Memorial Park Roswell Recreation and Parks Seaborn Jones Memorial Park Shaking Rock Park
Forests and nature preserves	Autrey Mill Nature Preserve & Heritage Center Fernbank Forest Marshall Forest Morningside Nature Preserve Phinizy Swamp Nature Park Reynolds Nature Preserve
Nature and environmental education centers	Birdsong Nature Center Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center Chattahoochee Nature Center Cochran Mill Nature Center Dauset Trails Nature Center Dunwoody Nature Center Elachee Nature Science Center Georgia Nature Center Grand Bay Wetland Education Center Melvin L. Newman Wetlands Center Oatland Island Wildlife Center Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center Panola Mountain State Park Nature Center Sandy Creek Nature Center Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum & Nature Center Tidelands Nature Center Tybee Island Marine Science Center West Atlanta Watershed Alliance Outdoor Activity Center

Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Georgia Forestry Commission (web)

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