In efforts to update my Waterfalls page, this Feb 2013 trip was back-posted in Feb 2016.
Before heading home from my Yurts of Georgia State Parks outing documented in Three of My Favorite Things!!, Connor and I visited Glen Falls Trail to (as you'll see later) squeeze in a few more waterfalls. This trail, especially around the Glen Falls area is dominated by rocks which makes sense given the proximity to Rock City.
Those two pictures above, and the two below, are of the 65 foot tiered lower cascades of Glen Falls.
You then cross a small bridge over a pool.
Climbing up above that you get to see the main 30 foot sluice that squeezes to make up Glen Falls.
Up past that is the less impressive 12 foot tiered upper falls. I about broke my butt when I slipped and fell while crossing the wet rocks!
In addition to a hiking the straightforward trails, here's a shot of the squeeze between some rocks you get to do on this hike.
Looking back at it, I'm blessed to have these times with Connor. He's growing into a young man now and simply doesn't share the same interests as his boring old man. I can only hope he remembers these outings as fondly as I do and if he decides to have children some day that maybe he'll take them on some of the same adventures we did. I'm so grateful for his love and the memories I've created and the ones still left to be made.
In efforts to update my Yurts of Georgia State Parks and Waterfalls pages, this Feb 2013 trip was back-posted in Feb 2016.
What a set of memories with three of my very favorite things; spending time with my son, viewing beautiful Waterfalls, and camping – especially in one of the Yurts of Georgia State Parks. We camped in Yurt #5 at Cloudland Canyon SP which is nestled up in the northwestern-most part of the state sitting atop Lookout Mountain.
After a filling breakfast, we started our hike from the Yurt Village over to the main trailhead. While Gretchen wasn't with us on this trip, we made sure to take some photos of all the weird nature stuff she likes such as this shelf fungus.
We were heading downhill towards the falls and it wasn't too long before we could hear some water heading to the start of the giant plunges that awaited us.
But before we got down there, we had to make our way down into the canyon and were greeted by a bunch of rock faces on our descent.
After MANY steps, we finally got down below the first waterfall, Cherokee Falls, and headed back upstream towards it.
Then we were pleased to find this 75 foot plunge. The pictures simply do not do justice to this waterfall; it must be seen in person.
When then headed back downstream.
And down even more stairs as we headed towards Hemlock Falls.
And yes, even more stairs...
The trails are extremely well maintained at Cloudland Canyon SP. It is a great experience for all.
And if you ever forget on the hike how the park got its name, you just had to look up!
We finally could hear the loud rumbling of Hemlock Falls. If you look closely in the next picture you can see it behind the trees.
We finally got there. Connor beat me to the deck as I was getting tired thinking about climbing back up.
As with its slightly smaller sister, you have to be there in person to hear the thunderous sound of this 100 foot plunge. It was magnificent!
I'm not going to lie, the walk back up all of those stairs felt even more miserable then the ones you find Camping at Amicalola Falls State Park, but it was definitely worth getting a chance to see these gigantic and powerful waterfalls. I'd be glad to do it all over again; especially if Connor would accompany me. When you finally do make it back to the top you are blessed with some awesome vistas of the canyon below.
You even can see Hemlock Falls from above.
Not to mention some great photo opportunities of the 180 foot tiered West Rim Falls.
If these waterfall pictures have motivated you to make it out to Cloudland Canyon SP, keep in mind that in late winter, spring, and early summer, and after heavy rains, the falls here will really rumble. Later in the year, smaller cascades might be reduced to a just a trickle and you really don't want to walk all the way down, much less back up, those stairs if you aren't going to get to see these waterfalls at full power. 
Yes, this is part 4 of a 3-part series. ;-) It has been a month now since the new semester started and Connor has been going to school full-time. I wanted to share an “after action report” of sorts. We’ve had a little time to consider if this was an appropriate & needed program for him and on that note, we overwhelming believe so. The perfect storm of greatly elevated tics, the associated self-awareness, unfortunate (and powerfully imprinted) interactions with a few teachers & students, the depression & anger that has been welling up in him, the pressure of middle school, the influx of new students due to redistricting and well… just being a boy transitioning into a teenager were just too much for him and the course we were on was simply not going to be successful.
As I’ve said before, the intra-family focus, the professional counseling, and the doctor oversight & medications from his neurologist & psychologist really did make a difference and I’m glad to see him back in school. The level of clonidine that he is on has dropped his tics by a solid 50% (a number Connor and I independently reported) and while I hate to see him dealing with any tics, it is comforting to see him NOT internally collapsing due to the debilitating self-doubt, embarrassment and depression that we saw back when school started in the Fall. This is surely not to say that none of this affects him -- that journey is a long one, but one that I believe he is actually on now. Connor is a deeply private fella regarding his feelings and it is truly hard to determine really how far he is on the journey. We get to observe him and base our assessments on what we can witness ourselves.
On the negative side, I must say that the time away from formal school days (remember, he did continue to take all classes except two electives; finishing with an all A report card), and unfortunately some of the “meaning of life” lessons I taught him during this period, have only made his lack of enthusiasm -- well… let’s call it his “heavy dislike” -- for school only increase. We are working with him on this and we do realize this surely is NOT anything special for Connor. We know MANY others have varying levels of enthusiasm for school. We’ll continue to work with him on this and (selfishly I realize) are grateful for dealing with something much more mainstream.
In many ways, we are back to where we were just a year or two again with Connor and TS+. So far, Connor continues to deal with a middle of the road “textbook” case of Tourette Syndrome as expressed in the Wikipedia TS article’s characteristics section. Note; as that article clearly states, there is no “typical” case of TS. We continue to hope and pray that things do not get worse for him and we extend those same hopes and prayers to all dealing with TS. Many kids and adults are suffering with much more than Connor is dealing with and continued prayers go out to them.
To recap, we are grateful to the Hospital/Homebound Program of our local school district and for the support and understanding of so many educators and staff members. Connor really needed it and it has made a difference in his life. We are so happy to have him back into school as despite the normal trials & tribulations many kids have with being at school, we know how important and critical this is to him at this point in his life.