Melissa Watson has written two guides that we bought: Hiking Waterfalls in North Carolina and Hiking Waterfalls in Georgia and South Carolina. At the bottom of this review are links for the books on Amazon. If you click on the link and buy a book I'll earn a little commission. So far I think I've earned enough to buy a lens cap but hey every penny helps! The guides list 35 waterfalls for Georgia and 18 for South Carolina and 113 for North Carolina which explains why it gets its own book. I'm a bit disappointed with the South Carolina coverage because we have over 30 waterfalls here in our state so the coverage is a bit light in my opinion. I do have to give the author credit though she personally has hiked to each of these waterfalls she has written about and has provides turn-by-turn directions, with mileage for making your way from the trail head to the base of the waterfall. She has included GPS coordinates for the trail head and waterfall. For each waterfall she includes a map with the track she took to get from the trailhead to the waterfall, height of the waterfall, her beauty rating for the waterfall, distance, difficulty rating, trail surface, approximate hiking time, blaze color to follow, county the waterfall is located in, contact information for the waterfall, and map information to use to look the waterfall up on topo maps. That's a lot of information!
I've compared her write up of some of the waterfalls Donna and I have already found and found her descriptions to be very accurate. My only complaints about the book are: (1) lack of coverage for South Carolina and (2) there's a few errors in the GPS coordinates that I've found. Fortunately I was able to discover the errors while entering the coordinates into my mapping software and not while out trying to find the waterfall. Fortunatly the errors are minor. In one case she listed the trailhead and waterfall with the same coordinates but the description says it's a 1 mile hike to get to the falls so obviously one of the coordinates is wrong. I've passed along the issues I've discovered to the publisher and author and received a brief response from the publisher and am waiting to hear back from one of them with the correct coordinates for one waterfall. Given the amount of information she provides and that I was only able to find a couple of mistakes I think she really put a lot of work into these guides.
Overall I'm very impressed with the guides and I'm sure they will get lots of use as Donna and I continue our waterfall quests. It'll be next spring before we get a chance to use the guide. I don't think we'll be doing any more waterfall hunts this year but you never know. If we get an unusually warm weekend we may head north west to upstate South Carolina and put the guide throuh a test. Once we've had a chance to use it in the field I'll post a follow up.
Below you'll find a list of the waterfalls listed in each of the guides.
Georgia Waterfalls | |||
---|---|---|---|
Ada-Hi | Amicalola | Anna Ruby | Becky Branch |
Bull Cove (North Carolina) | Cane Creek | Crow Mountain Creek | Denton Branch |
Desoto | Dick's Creek | Dukes Creek | Eastatoah |
Falls #1 on Waters Creek | Falls #2 on Waters Creek | Falls on Deep Gap Branch (North Carolina) | Flat Branch |
Helton Creek | Hemlock | High Shoals | Holcomb and Ammons |
Horse Trough | Litle Rock Creek | Little ridge Creek | Martin Creek |
Minnehaha | Panther Creek | Panther and Angel | Raven cliff |
Sea Creek | Sliding Rock on Wildcat Creek | Stonewall | Sylvan Mill |
Toccoa | Trahlyta | Waterfalls of Tullulah Gorge |
North Carolina Waterfalls | |||
---|---|---|---|
Big Bradley | Big Laurel | Bridal Veil | Bridal Veil Falls in DuPont State Forest |
Bubbling Spring Branch | Bull Cove | Camp Branch | Cascade Lake Dam |
Cascades on the Cullasja RIver | Cathey's Creek | Cedar Rock Creek Falls and Falls on Grogan Creek | Chestnut |
Connestee | Corn Mill Shoals in Dupont State Forset | Courthouse Falls | Crabtree |
Cullasaja | Denton Branch (Georgia) | Dill | Douglas |
Dry | Duggers Creek | Eastatoe | Elk River |
Falls on Cove Creek, Little Sliding Rock, and Cove Creek Falls | Falls on Deep Gap Branch | Falls on Long Branch | Falls on Long Branch, Hendersonville Reservoir Dam, and Falls on Fletcher Creek |
Falls on Tributary of State Rock Creek and Pound Pup Falls | Falls on the West Fork of the Pigeon River | French Broad, Mill Shoals, Rooster Tail, Lower Rooster ail, and Bird Rock | |
Glassmine | Glen | Glen Cannon | Granny Burrell and Frolictown |
Grassy Creek | Greenland Creek | Harper Creek | Hickory Nut |
Hidden and Window Falls in Hanging Rock State Park | High Falls on Mills River | High Falls on the Thompson River | High Shoals Falls in South Mountain State Park |
Hooker Falls in Dupont State Forest | Hunt Fish | Hurricane | Jackson |
John's Jump | Juneywhank | Key | Lake Powhatan Dam |
Lake Sequoyah Dam | Laughing | Little Bradley | Looking Glass |
Lower Cascades in Hanging Rock State Park | Lower Falls of Upper Creek | Lower Falls on the Little Beartrap Branch | Lower Satulah |
Lower and Upper Linville | McGalliard | Merry | Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek |
Mingo | Mooney | Moore Cove | Moravian |
North Harper Creek | Paradise | Peason's | Picklesimer Rock House |
Quarry | Ranger | Raven Rock | Roaring Fork |
Rough Butt Creek | Rufus Morgan | Schoolhouse and Warden's | Second Falls at Graveyard Fields |
Secret | Setrock Creek | Shunkawauken | Silver Run |
Silvervale | Skinny Dip Hole | Slick Rock | Sliding Rock |
Soco | South Harper Creek | Stone Mountain, Middle, and Lower Falls in Stone Mountain State Park | Tom's Branch and Indian Creek |
Tory's Falls in Hanging Rock State Park | Toxaway | Triple, High, and Grassy Creek Falls in DuPont State Forest | Turley |
Upper Bearwallow | Upper Cascades in Hanging Rock State Park | Upper Falls at Graveyard Fields | Upper Falls of Upper Creek |
Upper Falls on Little Beartrap Branch and Falls on Big Beartrap Branch | Walker | Walking Stick | Waterfall off Moore's Springs Road in Hanging Rock State Park |
Waterfall on Avery Creek and Twin Falls | Waterfall on Log Hollow Branch and Falls on Tributary of Big Bearpen Branch | Waterfall on Sam Branch and Wash Hollow | |
Waterfalls of the Horsepasture River: Rainbow, Turtleback, Drift and Stairway | White Owl | Whitewater and Laurel | Widow's Creek Falls in Stone Mountain State Park |
Wilderness | Wintergreen Falls in DuPont State Forest | wildcat and Falls on Flat Laurel Creek |
South Carolina Waterfalls | |||
---|---|---|---|
Brasstown | Bull Sluice | Cedar Creek | Chau Ram |
Chauga Narrows | Fall Creek | Falls on Reedy Branch | Issaqueena |
King Creek | Long Creek | Opossum Creek | Pigpen and Licklog |
Raven Cliff | Spoon Auger | Station Cove | Twin Falls |
Upper Sloan Bridge, Lower Sloan Bridge, and Hiker's Perel | Yellow Branch |
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