Tallulah Falls Visitors Center — Attraction in Tallulah Falls

Do NOT visit when leaves are on the trees. You will see nothing at the scenic overlooks, which should be renamed "scenic overgrowths".

Lots of confusion about how and what to do to get down to the gorge floor "trail". Here's the scoop:

You are on your own to get down the 1,099 steps on the stairs. But there's a safety class at 8am, 10 am, etc. Once 100 people in total for the day have attended, no more hikers are allowed to the gorge floor. The classes are promptly held every two hours, if your late, too bad. Get to the visitors center 15 to 20 mins early and meet at the information desk. No charge to hike down to the gorge floor, just the $5 parking fee. You must have your vehicle license plate number in order to take the safety class!

The Gorge floor trail is not actually a trail. There is no soil and no permanently mapped out place to walk. It is nothing more than a boulder field all along the edge of the river and you have to crawl, step, climb, and claw your way all over the boulders.

When you've made your way down to the second set of Falls, you have to climb your way out of the canyon. It's about a 900 ft vertical climb and a lot of the time you are on all four climbing over more boulders.

It is an incredibly technical hike. I have hiked two different islands in Hawaii, Glacier National Park, all over Texas, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Georgia, and North Carolina, and this was a very technical hike. You have to be in very good physical condition, have good balance, and no issues with knees ankles,etc, and you have to be able to get your self wet up to possibly your chest depending on water levels. Would I do the Gorge Floor hike again? You bet!

The visitor center is very well maintained and clean with a friendly and knowledgeable staff. The interpretive displays are...

If you’re looking for a very easy walk to a waterfall view, you can easily park and see the waterfall from two vantage points and be back in your car in ~20-30mins. If you want a more physically trying adventure, there are additional vantage points but we were satisfied with the first two! Some 100+ stairs take you to the additional ones, and a family with two small children who we saw coming back from those further points said it wasn’t worth it with small kiddos. The visitor center was closed but the bathrooms were available (very unkempt but functional). Easy parking,...

Lovely visitor center, covering natural as well as settlement history of the area. Being from the western states, it’s different learning about how a place got it’s tourist boom in the Victorian era. Learned about that and the dams and railroad history, with a nice model of the town as it was then. Loved learning about the different wildlife in the area as well, and how the gorge formed geologically. Movie in the downstairs theater was OK—would be a great place to relax if the seats were more comfortable. Definitely going back to Tellulah...