Sun, Oct 21 2018 - Cloudland Canyon Fall Splendor Day Trip - preceding AOC outing at gorgeous Lula Falls on same afternoon (View Original Event Details)
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We had a wonderful time together exploring this ruggedly beautiful Georgia state park that boasts panoramic overlooks, plunging waterfalls and a variety of native plants & animals. The cool crisp blue-sky fall day was a welcome change of pace from early October's sweltering humid weather. Brilliant reds, yellows and oranges were beginning to pop out in the greenery all around us.
After introductions at 10AM in the park's main parking lot we kicked off our adventuring with a short hike to the nearby "central overlook" with its spectacular views of the main canyon and its two "upstream" narrower gorges whose creeks far below us had begun carving these deep gashes into the western rim of Lookout Mountain millions of years ago. Next we descended via the Waterfall Trail's steep stairway to the base of the "Daniel Creek" canyon. Along the way took our time viewing and photographing Cherokee Falls, Hemlock Falls and another fine waterfall just below the "Blue Trail" bridge over the creek.
Back atop the long stairway our sunny Sunday had begun to warm nicely. After a brief layer-shucking break at the cars we concluded our Cloudland "canyoneering" by hiking via the West Rim Trail to a rugged overlook where we relaxed and enjoyed our picnic lunches on huge sunny boulders.
At about 1:30 PM we took advantage of a kind invitation from friends of the Atlanta Outdoor Club who manage the nearby 8000-acre "Lula Lake Land Trust," and car-caravaned from the State Park to this wilderness preserve via a scenic highway route atop Lookout Mountain. It was fun exploring the core property of this amazing place and its beautiful Lula Falls. Considered many to be Georgia's #1 must-see natural attraction in Georgia this huge 100-foot tall "well-kept-secret" is just a few hundred yards downstream of pristine Lula Lake and its smaller "entrance waterfall." Diane and I felt lucky to be among our five AOC volunteers who got to stay at Lula Lake for two more days and nights, camping at their nice creekside group campsite and partnering with the friendly staff to do some much-appreciated trail work, invasive-plant control and litter removal. - Submitted by Charlie, Wed Oct 24th
p.s. During this event it was fun getting to know a friendly young veterinary assistant from Sandy Springs named Travis who happened to be exploring Cloudland Canyon for the first time with his two fine dogs, Ace and Diamond. I'm delighted to include Travis's name in our final hike roster of 12 participants, esp. since he immediately officially joined our fine Club on the same day.
Addendum on Oct 27th: Many thanks to Travis for the following nice e-note which shares his excellent online album of colorful shots that he took Sunday at Cloudland Canyon and Lula Lake:
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