Tallulah Gorge State Park — Attraction in Tallulah Falls

Oh boy, where to begin. First, I'll tell you I consider myself in excellent shape. I'm a 48 y/o adventure seeking mom, walk 5-6 miles 4+ times a week. I go through my weight training periods but all I'm doing now is walking/hiking. My friend is in just as good of shape. She also plays in a tennis league. We brought her 14 y/o travel soccer playing son and her 9 y/o daughter who is small and slight (4'6", 70 lbs). All that to say, we made it with a 9 year old but it was a bit challenging. But she's still alive. All the Danger Warning signs everywhere, yeah, there for a reason. I'll probably bring my husband and his muscles and 11 y/o daughter back sometime.

Here is our journey with notes/tips: -9am arrived and went inside center to grab free gorge floor permit. This is only needed if you want to continue once you descend all the way down. They will tell you about the hike and the dangers and check your footwear. I had tennis shoes on. In hindsite, good grippy water shoes in addition would have been great to bring but I made it barefoot when needed. I would for sure bring waterproof bag to keep anything dry that you don't want to get wet like your cell phone. Also a small towel would have been nice. Absolutely bring a minimum of 32oz water. I rarely drink much on my hikes and I took my last sip at the end of the hike. It was about 90 that day so not terrible (after being in 100 degree weather). Also, at the end of our hike they still had permits left but on weekends, I'd probably get there early. They only give out 100. -9:15 took North Rim trail and went down all the stairs (500+). Stopped along the way at the overlook to take pics of the waterfall. Took 20 min to get to bottom. -9:35 prepared to cross the rocks including removing shoes and tying them on my small pack so they wouldn't get wet. Also hooked my Hydroflask on. I wish I had taken a small backpack with a dry bag in it. You will absolutely want your hands free!!! We had to wait for people to move out of the way. They get stuck and get scared. I wasn't scared but I was a little nervous for my friend's daughter. Height is your friend as you'll need to stretch across the rocks. I had to grab her hand and carefully bring her across. It's slick in some areas. I saw a woman slip and it looked like it hurt. Worst case though, you slip into the water, the rocks will stop you and there are what looks like slow pools. It took 30 minutes in total for the 4 of us to reach the other side -10:05 stopped for a snack once across and let the adrenaline drain from the little one. Trekked along the floor past Oceana Falls (looks like a tall sliding rock but keep going, that's not it) to Bridal Veil (Sliding Rocks). -10:55 arrived at sliding rocks. The kids swam for a good half an hour. While the kids were swimming and sliding down the rocks, I was searching for a way to get our packs across the river without getting them wet. It was very slippery which makes for excellent sliding but not for excellent keeping-your-stuff-dry. Lol We ended up having the kids swim across while my friend and I tossed stuff over to her son. Then we carefully got ourselves across. I saw someone slip and cut her chin. I saw people carefully and very, very slowly trying to walk their stuff across. Seriously, traction is your friend on this hike. You CAN turn around and go back the way you came, cross that river, climb back up all those steps but it's better to climb up on the other side of the sliding rocks. -12:05 reached the other side of the sliding rocks and got our shoes back on and prepared to climb up. -12:30 reached the top! Took a small break and started back along the South Rim trail. Involves walking along the highway to cross the gorge. -1:05 arrived back at the visitor center! Grabbed our water bottle sticker from the gift shop and headed out feeling very satisfied!

The only other thing I would note is that I would in no way do this hike when rain is predicted or it rained recently. You need traction and you need free hands! If you are decently fit, this hike is...

I want to first start off by saying that the actual park and falls both deserve 10 stars! The hike was beautiful and everyone inside the interpretive center was very helpful and very pleasant! I will definitely be back to hike again.

But i will camp somewhere else. The campground is right off of the main highway and there are cars whizzing by all night. The camp sites themselves were fine and the water and electrical hookups were very nice. But it’s not a peaceful camping environment like at other state parks.

My biggest complaint was the management. I’m including photos for reference. I camp using a rooftop tent setup. The tent itself doesn’t take 2 minutes to setup but i overland so i have to set up my shower, kitchen, and awning. It literally took me almost two hours to setup everything while also welcoming in other camping guests. I found the one perfectly level spot on the campground where i wouldn’t have to use my recovery boards to level. It involved me driving on a pile of dead leaves by like a foot or so.

While i was setting up, the park ranger must’ve ridden by and saw me setting up and noticed where i was parked. Instead of her stopping me before i got too far into my setup, she waited until i was done and then sent over one of the younger rangers to inform me that I had to move my truck because all 4 tires need to be on gravel. That doesn’t bother me as a rule but i literally wasn’t parked on grass or anything living for that matter. I begged the campground host (who was extremely helpful) to have the lady call me so i could explain why i parked where i did and to explain that it really isn’t that big of a deal and that it took me hours to setup. I didn’t realize that at that point SHE herself had been by already. It wasn’t until she responded and told him that she saw it herself and that i needed to move that i got upset. She never called me. So i had to break my setup down, move back 1.5 feet in my truck, fight to level it, and reset up all my stuff. Thankfully i was with a group and that made it easier. What was further frustrating is i walked around the campground after and counted at least 15 cars that were parked COMPLETELY on “grass” and no one said a word to them.

This was completely ridiculous and i (nor my camping group) will not be visiting this park to stay in again. Again, i don’t blame the campground host or the first ranger that said something to me (they actually both said that they understood my frustration when they saw where i was actually parked because they wouldn’t have asked me to move). I blame the lady (never got her name) that made this decision because she could’ve said something while i was setting up and saved me hours of work. She could’ve also ruled with some common sense after realizing i was on nothing alive. She could’ve refunded me my whole payment as i had only been there a couple of hours when i asked because i was considering breaking all my stuff down and going back home. Pictures attached for reference. (The red line is where i was asked to move my...

This place is a JOKE! You have to get permit understandable, arrived at 7:15 (from 3 hours away)we were around 50 or so in line waiting for opening at 8:00. Park official shows up and advised everyone in line about permit, and then advised if you don't already have your shoes on so she can see them she won't let you go(dumb), We didn't yet, figured we could do all that after permit, so most of the line had to go back to there cars, make it back and door is open and now we are around 100 in line, they only issue 100 passes per day, while inside line all the way around inside open breeze way, this clown park ranger then goes into a if you can me clap one time, if you can hear me clap 2 times, if you can hear me clap 3 times like we are in elementary school, she then let us know about the class for the hike, and you needed to have your parking pass and tag number, could have said they earlier when everyone went back to vehicles, but class room only heald about 50 so we had to wait which is fine online said class was 10 minutes, the other ranger advised everyone waiting to be patient the classes are 45 MINUTES!🙄🤬 We go ask her and make sure that's what she said and she confirmed yes 45 min, we brought the 10 min on-site she said yeah we know but it's wrong! That would have been 2 hours waiting just to hike a 2 mile trail, I understand it maybe hard for some and some probably have no business being out there, but this park is a joke and I would not recommend any avid hikers go to this place, we thought it would be a cool quick stop, we were wrong. We left and lost parking fee and went and hit multiple trails and finished at Wayah Tower for sunset. This place is TRASH!! They should mention all of these details...