Another

Another beautiful, sunny, cool day.
   Another drive along North Georgia's mountain roads.
        Another hike.
              Another waterfall, or two!

Life is really hard on fulltime RVers.

The trees seemed to have recovered from the rain storms. Many leaves blew off, but many more are showing their autumn color. As we drove, a new blast of reds and golds appeared around each bend. 

Did you know that the leaves are really always this color, and that it is only because they are full of chlorophyll, which masks the color with green all summer, that we cannot see it. Now they are getting ready to rest through the cold dark months. The chlorophyll production shuts down, and their true colors come through.

Our first destination this day was Anna Ruby falls. 

The walk to the falls was paved and was less than a mile, but was quite steep.

It ran along a fast-moving stream that tumbled over many large rocks.












What is a hike in the Georgia mountains, without a super-falls as the destination? Anna Ruby Falls is quite wonderful as it roars over the rocks.

Like a previous area that we've visited, AR falls is the junction of two different streams, that spill over the edges of a valley side-by-side, to come together at the bottom of their almost-separate falls.

There were only a few steps, but a couple of nice observation decks.  This big rock didn't want to get out of the pathway. I guess it liked the nice sunshine.

Our second destination for the day was also a falls. The path to it was through an open wooded area, above the creek that it spilled into.

We could hear the water, but couldn't see it for most of the 3/4 mile walk to the falls.

The upper de Soto Falls cascades down three or more levels. There are several smaller pools below what is shown here.  They signs say that the name comes from a suit of armor that was found near the falls, and was attributed to the expedition of Hernando de Soto.  It being late October, we think it might have been an old Halloween costume...











There was also a lower de Soto falls, but nature called us to the parking lot with facilities...

This may be the last falls we will be visiting in this area.  We are moving on Monday, and will be getting ready and watching World Series baseball over the weekend.  

I'm the small figure on the road,,,

The trails to and from both falls were through gorgeous forests.  It is hard to believe that conservation-oriented people think that human activity can produce more carbon dioxide than the world's plants can handle.  Look how many trees there are!  

It has been a good stay, in a beautiful part of the country. 

The weather has been great except for a few rainy days, but even they were a nice chance to just relax. I've been watching the weather in Florida, and know we are moving on into much warmer temperatures. It looks like mid to high eighties is the norm. That's fine with me. If it gets too hot, we'll just crank up the AC and stay in. I'm looking forward to seeing new parks and places.  Maybe alligators!