Nanna Siggi News: Hiking in to HIKE INN

II. GO DAY!
The saga continues.... day 1 of actual hiking! We got up and packed our backpacks, loaded the Corolla, and headed down for some breakfast. The view out the wall of windows was foggy. Very foggy. After breakfast we wandered around the grand lobby and the lower deck of of the lodge. This would be a nice place to come back to and stay for a few days...... Amicalola Lodge offers truely majestic views!!! It is a 56-room mountaintop lodge with full service dining room & meeting facilities. (Built in the late 1990's it needs a bit of refurbishing but is clean & functional) The park also has 14 fully equipped cottages and a 24 site campground. There are several hiking trails in addition to the AT approach trail that is 8.5 miles from the bottom of Amicalola Falls. (Hmmmmm can you tell I worked for the GA Dept. of Tourism for a couple of years?hahaha)

This was taken after breakfast abt 10am since all this was fog shrouded earlier.

This side faces East so sunrise would be stunning on a clear day.

This is the downstairs gathering room ... I can so imagine sitting in front a roaring fire.

As we left the Lodge we stopped to get a few pictures with the decorations from Burt's Pumpkin Patch, stopped at the "Top of the Falls" and then headed down to the Visitor Center. at the bottom of the mountain.

bridge over Little Amicalola Creek at "Top of the falls"

Another view of Little Amicalola Creek

Boo flirting with another man! Burt's Pumpkin Patch decorated high & low :)

Wendy got a little flirtatious too and she actually kissed this dude!


Me?? heck I just admired the gourds!

This marker is located at the visitor center, as here begins the approach trail. The 1st time I hiked to the Springer Mt. I actually started here, the lodge had not been built then. Today we will start at the top of the falls.

The little V at the top is the start of the 729 ft. cascade. I was taught & think it is tallest waterfall E. of the Mississippi, but apparently that is disputed & depends on the definition used for "waterfall"..We proceeded on into the center & bought a couple of AT maps & memorabilia, went over to check out the falls and registered for our hike. The trees obscured all but the tiniest view of the falls you can just see a spot of water just at the top. Fall color comes later down here in the south so everything is still very green here in late September. Since we had a late breakfast we opted to have a snack on the trail and headed back up the mountain to begin our trek.

And we're off!The hike has begun!!

The trail was mostly moderate with a few strenuous sections, I did not have any trouble making the hike tho I did have to stop fairly often on the steeper ascents to take short breaks. And to the girls dismay to take lots of pictures. I took about 250 pictures on 9/21.