Falls Creek Falls Loop and Mt Oglethorpe Views

This Hike has 2 parts -

A) First we will head to Eagle's Rest Park on Mt Oglethorpe, the original starting point of the Appalachian Trail until 1958. The summit was closed to tourists for many years until 2014, when the park opened.  We will enjoy the views and take a short walk to visit the observation towers, giant eagle, and indian rock. 

B) Then we will drive 2 miles back down Monument road to the Tobacco Pouch Trailhead and hike a five mile loop hike in the Wildcat Creek Tract of Dawson Forest with nearly 1500 feet in elevation gain and loss.  The main feature is a 75 + ft waterfall called Falls Creek Falls, but it also has a scenic stream and good winter views. 

If you are a fast hiker, and you don’t like to wait for slower people, this is not going to be the hike for you.  That said, the last part is strenuous, and you will need to be able to handle it, even if slowly. 

We start out at our loop at the high point (Tobacco Pouch Trailhead) and go down and come back up.  The last third of the hike, after we have stopped at the falls, is very steep.  Slower people can take their time, and we will make sure you get back to the top. 

We start out on the Tobacco Pouch trail following a gated gravel road along a ridge for just over a mile.  Then the trail leads downhill for about a mile, steeply at times, to Falls Creek, where we turn upstream on the Fall Creek trail.  We follow the stream up for a mile or so where we reach a short side trail that will take us to the bottom of the falls, where we can have lunch. 

From there, it is about two miles back to the trailhead.  Some of these sections are very steep, as we have to make up the elevation we lost coming down. 

There are a couple of places where the trail crosses Falls Creek which we may have to ford, depending on water levels.  You may have to take your shoes off to cross, so you need to bring flip flops or some other type of water shoe unless you want to do it barefoot. 

The Georgia DNR requires a GORP pass or a hunting or fishing license to enter this section of the Dawson Forest.  I have obtained one pass for 8 people, the maximum GORP group size.

Because of this we are limiting the max group size to 8 on this hike.

Take a right out of the Park and Ride and an immediate left onto Busbee Parkway.  Go a half mile to Chastain Rd and take a right.  In another half mile take a left onto 575 North.  

Go north 35 miles on 575 to GA 53 (W Church St) and take a right.  You will be in Jasper.  Go 1.8 miles through downtown Jasper and take a left onto Burnt Mountain Rd, GA 108.  

GA 108 will join GA 136.  Stay on GA 136/GA 108 going east.  After about 12 miles GA 108 turns left, but you stay on GA 136 for a few hundred yards and Monument Rd will be on your right at the ridge top on the Pickens/Dawson line.  

Eagles's Rest Park is at the dead end of Monument Rd after about 5 miles.  After several miles the road becomes gravel and narrows. There is plenty of parking at Eagles's Nest Park.

The coordinates are 34.486663, -84.332480

The address is 7315 Monument Rd, Jasper, GA