Chip poses for the camera these days; Cocoa doesn’t. Here she is looking away from my camera, but a friend captured all of us from above this past Sunday during a visit to Duke Creek Falls. It’s a place where two creeks come together. Notice the streams in this photo as they merge into one. This is a great place to visit because it is located on the Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway. A one mile hike leads to separate water falls and three different platforms where you can hang out with your dog or with family and friends.

Finally, we made it out to Camp Mikell, which is the conference center for the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. I’ve been wanting to take the dogs there for the past six months or longer but just have not had time. That’s sad, especially since it’s located only about five miles away. The weather was perfect for a long walk. We even had an opportunity to get up close and personal with a few horses, too. Last week, we were in snow at Neel’s Gap; but today, we went hiking without jackets and drove home with the windows open.

It is really cool (literally) to get away on the weekends. On this past one, we headed up into the mountains. Here’s a photo taken at Neel’s Gap in north Georgia as the snow moved in and then moved out. I love this place. It was a favorite of mine years ago when I was in college and it continues to be that today. There’s always lots of people around because it is located squarely on the Appalachian Trail. More about this later . . . .

Sunday, we drove up to the mountains along the way we passed this little valley with cattle in the distance. The sun had just come out for the first time since the storm and the trees were adorned with ice.

Here are a couple of icy views taken in North Georgia this past weekend. When I was in college, I would often drive up to Tallulah Gorge in the summer with friends and float lazily on a raft on this lake. Even in August the water always was icy, and I never understood why. I just reasoned that since we were in the mountains, it was probably “spring fed.” Then one summer, Georgia Power, who controls the dam at the end of the lake, decided to renovate it. The lake was drained revealing a very, very deep gorge with a river running through the middle! This is the same river that rushes through Tallulah Gorge. After seeing the rocky depth of the lake,  I never floated back out on it again. Actually, we never saw the bottom of the lake because it was much deeper. Just standing on the old concrete bridge so I could take this photo was enough to send shivers down my spine.

In 1882, the Tallulah Falls Railway crossed the lake at this point. These concrete stacks—once the foundational anchors for the train’s tracks—are all that is left of an era gone by. Before 1900, thousands of tourists flocked to the gorge. One of the main attractions was the train that traveled from Cornelia to Franklin including the outside rim of Tallulah Gorge. Historical information I read on the Web said that at certain points the track narrowed down to 25 feet in width! This has to be about that size and not much wider. Sending even more chills down my spine at this thought.

Not the best photo, but I posted it anyway. This view just makes my heart race! The top of the column is really leaning. It is not a wide-angle problem. I read online that at the end of the train’s years there were a couple of serious accidents and even fatalities! Ok . . . enough of that sort of thing. Click the link to view the history of the Tallulah Falls Railway.